


Our Hunter

by HamenaHamena



Category: VALORANT (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, I'm just going to wing it, casual fanfic, if there is lore that contradicts this story... then whatever im going to keep this shit ahahhahhah, there is barely any lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27574499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamenaHamena/pseuds/HamenaHamena
Summary: Sova is such a nice guy, but he has his secrets. Each chapter tells the story of Sova and his interactions with the other amazing agents in the Valorant Protocol.This is just a casual fanfic, nothing too deep.
Relationships: Minor Sova/Sage
Comments: 27
Kudos: 99





	1. Sova and Breach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sova has a chat with Breach.

Breach's hearty laugher immediately faltered when he was chosen for cleanup duty.

"That's not fair- I did it last time-" Breach smirked, crossing his arms with a drink still in one hand. Jett and Raze both stuck out their tongues at him and drunkenly left the room, both leaning on one another and laughing about something.

"I'll go and make sure they make it to their rooms," said Sage as she set her half-empty glass down on the side table, leaving the room to go after the two duelists.

Brimstone and Viper had already left early, while Omen didn't even show up. Cypher also left early to go finish a project that he was very passionate about, Reyna and Killjoy said their thanks and actually decided to get some rest after the party, and Phoenix was completely knocked out on one of the office chairs.

Soon, everyone was gone from the room except for the sleeping Phoenix, and Sova, who was gathering up the glasses and leftover drinks.

Breach scoffed and walked over to his Initiator buddy. "You're still here, eh? Not gonna scurry off like the rest of these rövhatts?"

The hunter turned his head over to his friend and smiled. "No," Sova assured with his hands full of cups. "I have nothing else to do."

Breach watched as Sova made his way over to the sink and gently set each glass down next to it. Fortunately for them, the sink was empty and didn't have any leftover dishes from yesterday's meal. This made Sova happy (as he was usually the one to actually wash the dishes when no one else did), and he began to wash them.

While Sova washed the cups, Breach put away all the leftover alcohol back into the cabinets or fridge, depending on the type, and looked for a towel to wipe off the counters with.

"Are we going to leave the boy there?" Sova asked suddenly, without taking his eyes off of the sink.

Breach chuckled a bit, and looked back over at Phoenix. "I don't know, we could just leave him here to rot with the smell."

A light chuckle came from Sova's mouth. "We sure could." He looked over at Phoenix for a second, his prosthetic eye narrowing in on him. "But... that wouldn't be kind."

"Aww, Sova. You're no fun," Breach replied with sarcasm in his tone, but with no ill intent. He knew that out of all the agents, the Russian hunter was definitely the softest in terms of feelings, despite his hard exterior on missions. 

He was also the most mysterious, even more than the super-secret Cypher. For Breach, he thinks of Cypher as a man who tries to hide his identity all the time, wearing that mask and changing the information in his files constantly. But Sova, he didn't go out of his way to hide anything, he just didn't say what he didn't want to share.

For example, no one knew Sova's real name.

_And Breach knew that the hunter's reassurance of "Sova" being his actual birth name is complete bullshit._

"Well, go wake him up."

"Ah, right." Breach waltzed over to the slumped over man in the chair, and leaned over him. "Hey, you gotta go-" he said as he took one arm and pushed the office chair with a bit too much force, causing it to roll across the room.

"Hw- wha?" Phoenix mumbled before attempting to get up, not realizing he was awkwardly laying in an office chair that was on the move. His body shifted, causing him to lose his balance and completely topple over onto the cold floor. The chair landed on top of his back, causing Phoenix to grumble in pain.

Breach couldn't help but let out a snort, while Sova looked behind him once more to see the poor boy lying on the tile floor with a chair resting on his ass.

"...mmmm," Phoenix mumbled.

Breach lifted up the chair with one arm and held out his other towards Phoenix. "Get up, or else I may have to carry you back."

A muffled chuckled came from Phoenix as he lifted his head up from the ground. Sova could tell that Phoenix was completely sloshed. Jett had dared him to drink a whole bottle of some type of Korean alcohol that she found on one of the missions. Despite the dangerous fact of not knowing how old that bottle was, or where it exactly came from, Phoenix did it anyway, and surprisingly didn't throw up. Typical for a man of his age to do something so... daring.

"You would like that... wouldn't you Breash..." Phoenix slurred, attempting to grab Breach's hand but missing about four times.

"Nah, you're too hot for my taste," the Swede shot back, making Phoenix laugh again as he finally got a hold of Breach's mechanical hand.

Sova tilted his head at Phoenix. "Would you like a remedy to help that hangover tomorrow? It's definitely going to happen."

"Shhhit mannn... nah... I'm gonna be fiiiiiine..." Phoenix said, leaning on Breach's shoulder. "Your arm is hard... like mmmetal..." he said, tapping Breach's arm with one finger, then with his entire fist.

"Just make it for him," Breach commented with a smile.

"Already on it," Sova replied, finishing up the last of the cups and wiping his hands off with a towel. "Phoenix, go get some rest, I'll bring this to your room later."

"Awwwwssure..." Phoenix nodded, turning around and pushing himself off of the arm he was leaning on. He almost fell over, but caught himself, and looked back at the two Initiators as if nothing just happened. "See youuuu... Sovaaa~" He left the room with an attempt at a wave (but it just looked like some sort of awkward hand motion).

"He'll make it to his room. Definitely," Breach smirked.

Breach walked back over to Sova and sat on a stool while he watched him grab a few things from the freezer. "So, a remedy?" Breach asked, pointing to the bones that Sova pulled out from the freezer. The hunter also pulled out a pot from the cabinet and started to boil some water.

"Da."

"Mmm... what's it made of? Besides those human bones that you just pulled out from the kitchen freezer." 

Sova slightly grinned at his joke and held up one of the bones with his hand. "Not human bones, animal bones." He set the bone down and opened one of the many fridges and started rummaging through the items. He mumbled something to himself in Russian, and Breach raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Breach asked curiously.

"I'm looking for ginger. I know we have some, but Sage usually hides her tea ingredients quite well... ah, found it." He pulled out a huge chunk of ginger, and closed the fridge. "I can just chop this up."

"So, bones and ginger. Sounds tasty."

The hunter scoffed, and glanced at Breach for a split second with a smile. "You don't look too drunk, Breach," Sova commented as he began to cut the ginger. "But I saw you drink quite a lot."

"HAH," Breach exclaimed quite loudly, making Sova's eyes widen a bit from the sudden change of tone. "That was nothing. I'm quite resilient to the effects of alcohol."

"Oh, really?" Sova was intrigued. "That's quite the ability you have there, Breach. Are you sure you aren't a Radiant?" he joked.

"Hahah, if only that were the case."

A sudden pause filled the air. Breach could feel Sova's mood shift a bit at that comment, and it made Breach quickly think of something to say. "I-I don't mean that in a bad way, I obviously don't mind being a completely normal guy, of course." Breach crossed his arms and watched as Sova slowly cut the ginger.

They both remained silent for a moment.

"Normal guy," Sova repeated. "Hm."

Breach knew that Sova didn't like it when people compared themselves to Radiants. It's why Sova tried to stay away from Reyna, because Reyna was always talking about how Radiants were the future and how they would change the world because they were special and _different._

"Sova, you know that I don't mean it in _that_ way."

"Mhm. I understand, Breach."

Shit. Breach felt really awkward now. The water started to boil and Sova threw the bones into the pot, along with the ginger.

"My babushka used to make this for her friends that would like to party at night," Sova said. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "Sometimes, I would pretend I was drunk so I could also drink some of the broth. She played along sometimes."

Breach's eyes widened at this sudden drop of a piece of his past. Everyone knew about how much he loved his babushka. Sova always mentioned her in conversation, explaining how helpful and kind she was to him.

"Those were good times."

Breach looked down for a moment at the counter. The smell of the ginger started to fill the room. Sova reached up and retied his hair that was starting to come undone.

He didn't want to ask this. He really didn't. But he had to know.

"Is she... still alive?"

Sova's real eye twitched a bit as he fastened his hair tie. His face remained emotionless as he lowered his arms and leaned back on the counter. "I don't know," he answered. "We must cut off all ties with the outside world when we join Valorant. I knew this. I don't regret it."

Another moment of silent passed. Breach fiddled with his fingers while Sova stared at the pot. 

Suddenly, Sova turned his head toward his friend. "If you could return home, would you?"

Breach blinked a couple times. This question was thrown around a couple of times in conversation sure, but no one really took it seriously. But Breach could tell from the cold stare of the hunter that he was, in fact, dead serious.

"Well..." Breach started, "I didn't really have a... _family._ I was with a group of people, sure, but nothing serious."

Sova nodded as Breach spoke. He liked listening to the other agents talk about the normal things in life, and not about the fucking missions that they always had to go on.

"Also, these beauts-" he held up his arms, and activated them so that they lit up and made a funky clanking sound. "These have really helped me find my purpose in life, and allows me to assist others that can't defend themselves. I've also met some amazing people, like you, and the other agents that work here." He lowered his arms, and made a toothy grin. "You're my family now, this is my new home, and I'd never leave without making sure that you are all safe first."

Sova remained silent. Then he smiled. "You're such a softie under all that metal, Breach."

Breach scoffed again and pointed his finger at the hunter. "Says the one who is actually the living representation of a teddy bear-"

The room started to smell of meat broth. Sova grabbed a ladle and tasted the remedy. He approved of the taste in Russian and turned off the stove.

"What about you, Sova? Would you leave?"

Sova reached into the cabinet and pulled out a mug. He moved the pot over onto a hot pad and began transferring it to the mug with the ladle.

"Breach, like you said, this is my home now. I'd do anything for you all. No matter the costs."

Breach watched as the hunter set the ladle down back into the pot and picked up the mug carefully with both hands. He walked around the counter and passed by Breach. 

"I'm going to go deliver this to Phoenix. Thank you for the chat."

Sova started to walk away, and Breach let him be. But he stopped at the doorframe, and lowered his head. "I do miss her, though."

And with that he left the room, leaving Breach to himself in the cafeteria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I main both Sova and Breach, so of course this chapter would be about them- PFF
> 
> Thanks for reading, I appreciate it a whole lot <3


	2. Sova and Skye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sova visits the new agent, Skye.

"Sova, could you give this to Skye? She's in the workshop."

Sova held out his hands as Raze handed him some strange box that weighed a bit heavy.

"I'll get this to her."

"Thanks Sova! You're the best," she exclaimed, with a light punch on his shoulder. Sova watched as the upbeat demolitions expert skipped away, probably to go play some video games with Phoenix. Sova looked down at the box he had in his hands, and noticed that it was completely splattered with paint and scorch marks. Luckily, it was all dry, so his outfit didn't get stained for the 100th time when dealing with Raze's shenanigans. He decided to head over to the workshop right away and give this box to Skye.

The Australian was working on her trinkets, with a wood carving tool in hand and a block of wood in the other. She was very focused, making sure each and every detail was the same as it always was. Even a single mistake, or a single wood chip out of line, and the trinket wouldn't work. She was so focused on her carving that hearing the doors slide open made her hands shake a bit, causing her to spread her hands apart so she didn't make a mistake. Skye looked up to see who entered, and saw the blonde man that she didn't really get to speak with yet.

She had recently been recruited into the Valorant Protocol by Sage, and she was still getting used to all the new _humans_ that she had to work with. She didn't mind the new company if it meant saving the world from complete destruction. 

The man who walked in gave her a nod of hello, and took a quick look around the room to see if anyone else was there.

"It's just me," Skye said with a smile, causing him to look back in her eyes and return the smile. "So, whatcha' doin' over 'ere?" she asked, waving her wood carving tool around in a circular motion.

"You're Skye, correct? Nice to meet you," the man said, walking over to her table and setting the box down near it.

"You too, mate. Always a pleasure to meet someone new, even if they ain't an animal."

Sova tilted his head at that, remembering that she wasn't used to working with humans. He looked over at the redhead, wondering why she decided to join Valorant. 

"Yes, this box is for you, from Raze."

Skye squinted her eyes for a second at that name. "Raze... Raze..." she repeated a few times, trying to put that name with a face she had seen before. "Is... is that the girl who always jams her music at night?"

Sova gave her a light chuckle. "Da," he responded in Russian, which was just a typical habit of his. Skye's eyes lit up when he said this, and she gasped.

"OH! I know that word! That's 'yes!' In Russian!" She pointed her tool at Sova. "You're Russian?"

Sova didn't know how to respond to this sudden outburst of happiness at a simple word that he said. "I am," he nodded.

She gave Sova a toothy smile and leaned back. "Mate, that's so cool, I've never been to Russia, but I heard it's great. I'm from Australia, yknow, quite far from Russia."

Sova opened his mouth to say something, but she spoke again before he could.

"Ey, what's ya name?"

Sova paused for a second before answering. "I'm Sova."

"Sova? Maaann... ya'll have these amazing code names, and I'm stuck 'ere with the name Skye." She looked at Sova for a moment, scanning the man up and down. She felt like she recognized his appearance- the blonde hair, the blue cloak, and the one eye. Her mouth gaped open before slamming her open fist onto the table in front of her. "OH! You're the Initiator! Like that other guy, the one with metal for arms."

The hunter blinked a few times, and just nodded calmly. "You're correct. Breach and I are the only Initiators here so far."

"WELL GUESS WHAT SOVA-" she exclaimed, suddenly standing up from her chair and setting the tool down onto the table with a bit too much force. His eyes widened, and he just looked at her with silence, as if he was expecting an answer. Skye fist-pumped the air, then brought it down with a thumb pointing at herself. "I'm your newest Initiator buddy! Or, that's what Breach called it..."

"Oh!" Sova beamed, actually surprised that no one had told him of this yet. "That's... great news, actually."

Skye wondered how this man could sound so surprised yet equally as bored at the same time. It's as if he sounded like he cared, but at the same time he sounded... tired.

"I can't wait to work with you, Skye," Sova smiled.

"Righty-o Sova," she said, holding her hand out towards the hunter. He looked at it, then grasped it with his own hand and shook it. Skye sat back down onto her chair and picked up the trinket that she was working on. Sova couldn't help but take a look at the carving, his prosthetic eye zooming in and out of focus. Skye noticed this, and quickly reached back behind her and just lifted up another chair for Sova to sit in. She set it down next to Sova and motioned for him to sit.

"Oh, no. I don't want to get in your way, Skye-"

"Just shut your face and I'll show you what I'm workin' on, if you're interested."

Sova was, in fact, terribly curious about the little trinkets that she was making. After a good minute of standing, he finally sat down across from Skye.

He was quiet while she worked, gently carving the wood with her tool that looked way too small for her giant hands. Soon, the block of wood started to form a shape- a body of sorts that looked like some sort of wolf. He could make out the snout and ears that stuck up from the head, and soon the small legs were formed as well.

Skye started explaining how she carved the wood, and why it was so important to get every detail correct. With every statement she made, Sova listened. He was so respectful and such a great listener, but he was also a man of few words, which made Skye forget that he was even sitting there at times.

Soon, she finished the trinket of her Tasmanian tiger friend, and held it up so Sova could get a better look at it. 

"Now, you may think it's done, right? But it ain't done just yet-" she paused, and looked around her for something. "Here, hold him real quick-" she handed the trinket to Sova, who almost dropped the precious thing because of how quick she shoved it into his hands, and started to go through her things that she had brought with her from home. 

Sova looked at the trinket that sat there in his hands. It was very well made, and he could tell that Skye was very skilled in wood carving. He pressed his thumb against the wood and slid it down one of the engravings that Skye had carved out. Constantly making these little things must have been tiring for her, but if that's what it took for her powers to work, then that's just what has to be done.

"Okay, okay, I think I found it-" Skye mumbled, pulling out a small jar full of a green substance, and another jar full of leaves. She set both jars onto the table, and held her hand back out. Sova gave the trinket back to her carefully, and she nodded as thanks. 

"Alright so, my powers allow me to bring my little friend here to life," Skye said, twirling the trinket in her hand. "Watch."

Skye held the trinket in one hand at the ends of her fingers, while she moved her other hand around it. Suddenly, a very light green aura shimmered around her arms and hands, and it looked as if she transferred that energy into the wooden figure. The trinket lit up, with each of the little crevices and eye sockets shimmering with that same light green color, and it was lifted up off of her hand, hovering above it.

Although Sova wasn't the biggest fan of Radiants using their abilities to show off, Skye didn't seem like the type to boast and compare herself to the ones who didn't have anything "special." 

Skye watched as Sova's eyes sort of glare at her trinket once she activated it, making her feel a bit... awkward. But Sova seemed to notice this, and immediately took a breath in and fixed his serious posture. 

"Sorry, sorry. Just... deep in thought." He ran his hand through his hair and looked to the side.

Skye squinted at him for a split second before continuing her explanation. "See, currently this trinket just has itself, yknow, the wood. But if I add a little bit of extra detail..." she deactivated her trinket causing the lifeless shell to fall back down into her hand. Skye reached over to the jar full of a strange green substance and dipped her thumb into it, covering only the tip of her thumb.

"Is that moss?" Sova asked, recognizing the smell and the color now that it was fully out of the jar.

Skye nodded. "Why, yes it is. This moss 'ere helps my trinkets become more tanky when I use 'em," she said, as she used her thumb to rub the small bit of moss onto the back of the tiger. "It sounds fake as all hell, but it's the truth."

"Hm."

He watched Skye rub the moss onto the figure, and then she reactivated it. It sprung to life once more, eyes glowing brightly and slightly hovering over her hand.

"Alright. This little bugger 'ere is done. Now, I make sure they work properly before I take 'em to the field..."

The hunter watched as Skye stood up from her chair and walked a little bit away from the table. She looked at her trinket intensely before she smiled and whispered to it, "Time to hunt."

There was a strange light that gathered around her arm as she tossed the trinket out. It looked like it was scattered with some leaves that appeared out of nowhere, as the light quickly gathered itself around the wooden figure. In an instant, the little trinket flashed with a bright green light, and transformed into a giant Tasmanian tiger right before Sova's eyes. 

The creature wasn't fully real, as its front paws and legs were still made of wood while other parts just looked like bright light compacted into the shape of the creature. The usual green aura flowed around it like the wind, and it raised its head proudly at Sova.

Sova was amazed at how smooth the transition was from wooden figurine to life-sized pet. "Skye..." he said, not sure what to follow up with. He turned his head to look at her, but saw that she was not her usual self. Skye's eyes were shut tightly, and her arms were held out in front of her, with the aura swirling around her arms and eyes. It seemed as though she could not control herself when she was taking control of the creature.

_He would have to remember this for later._

The tiger started to walk around the workshop, hopping over tables and sliding under chairs. It was surprisingly agile for being made of wood and moss (but then again, it was powered by a Radiant, the possibilities are endless).

Sova examined it _very_ closely. He was a hunter, and so he naturally had the tendency to be on the alert when he knew that there were creatures around the area. He couldn't really help it, even if he knew that Skye wouldn't hurt him with her... pet.

The tiger finally stopped roaming around and walked back over to Skye. It sat on the floor, and lowered its head as the aura around it began to glow brighter, soon embracing it completely. The woman pulled her arms towards herself as the light from the tiger began to shrink back into its original size, and back into a tiny, wooden trinket that floated above her hands.

Skye's eyes opened quickly, and she took a deep breath in as she regained her consciousness. The light around her settled down, and was now only glowing around the wooden figure above her hand. "W-whoa-" she breathed, "I-I haven't done that in'a long while-"

Sova reached out his hand towards her. "Are you alright?" he asked, looking at Skye's face to make sure she wasn't about to keel over. 

Skye just laughed and deactivated her trinket. "I'm fine, Sova, thank you." She waved her hand at Sova, letting him know that she was not going to fall over. When Sova was sure she was alright, he sat back down onto his chair. Skye did the same, and leaned back while sighing.

"Man, I missed that rush-"

"So the trinket can be used multiple times?" Sova asked, curious about the specifics of her power.

Skye closed one eye and looked up, thinking. "Ehhh, kinda... it depends. Ya see, if the trinket attacks the enemy, all of its energy is used up and it dissipates immediately. It also _dies_ if it gets hurt too much... so I usually use it for scouting the area, yknow?"

Sova nodded, looking at his gauntlet-like wristband where his drone sat. "I know the feeling. It's like losing a member of your family if it dies."

Skye looked surprised. "Wow, I'm surprised you didn't just say the usual, ' _you can just make more, why care about the thing?'_ "

The hunter held up his wrist and showed her the drone attached. He released it up into the air, lowering his head and putting his two fingers against his temple. Unlike Skye, he didn't have to close his eyes, but his focus was heavily on the drone's vision, making it almost impossible for him to notice anything out of his real eye when looking through the drone.

The soft whirr of the drone filled the silence in the room, and Skye looked at the machine hover around her in a small circle.

"Your tiger... it's like my owl drone."

Skye tilted her head at Sova's comparison and crossed her arms. She didn't like technology a whole lot, but she could see where he was coming from and what he was trying to say.

"Owl drone you say? I can kinda see the resemblance."

Sova released his focus on the drone and guided it back to his wrist, so he could reattach it. He waited for the small confirmation of a click, then put his arm down.

"It's not a _real_ owl though," Skye smirked, pulling out something from her pocket.

It was a bird-like trinket, with moss and a few leaves already attached to it.

"This 'ere is my little friend, Hawko," she said as she activated it and immediately set it free.

Unlike the tiger, this little hawk didn't require the same amount of energy to control, thus allowing Skye to freely move around. Sova was in awe of how beautiful this creature was, with its magnificent glowing wings and perfect form.

"I-I really like this one-" Sova commented, holding his hand out, trying to get the bird to land on his arm. Skye allowed the bird to land on his arm, which made Sova feel all warm inside.

Skye chuckled and pointed a finger at him. "Seems like you gotta' soft spot for birds, Sova."

Sova didn't respond and was preoccupied with rubbing his two fingers across the feathers of Hawko. The bird cooed and rubbed his head on Sova's hand. "You- do you use him on missions?" Sova asked, with a little bit of worry in his voice.

"Of course, but not like the tiger-" Skye said, suddenly having a great (yet equally as horrible) idea. "See, Hawko here is very, very fragile. He dies with a shot or two to his wooden body, unfortunately."

Skye could see the sadness in Sova's eyes, (eye?) and felt really bad for what she was about to do (but it was going to be totally worth the look on his face-).

Sova continued to rub Hawko's chest feathers while Skye mysteriously turned her chair around and looked away. 

"I know we just talked about not wanting to lose our little buddies, but Hawko's entire purpose is to distract the enemy."

"Distract?" Sova asked. "But you said that he's too fragile, so he couldn't possibly be a good decoy, as he would only last a few sec-"

Skye snapped her fingers, and within a split second, Hawko's screech filled the room along with a really bright flash of light. She kept in a snort as she slowly turned around to see the poor hunter with both hands covering his face, leaning over in his chair.

"Pfffff-" Skye giggled, reaching into her pocket and pulling out another Hawko trinket.

Sova kept his eyes shut tightly, as he was just flashed by the precious little hawk that fucking exploded right in front of his face. All he could currently see at the moment was green.

"S-Sova, I- hahaha-" Skye tried to keep herself together, "Okay, okay, maybe that was a little bit rude of me to do-" She activated another Hawko and it flew over to Sova, pecking him on the head.

Sova didn't say anything and finally sat up, removing his hands from his face. He blinked multiple times, trying to make the green light disappear from his vision. Skye saw the blue light on his prosthetic eye blinking a couple of times and moving strangely as well, as if it was trying to readjust to the light in the room. He mumbled something in Russian to himself, and rubbed his face one last time before opening his eyes.

Clearing his throat, he said, "Warn me next time, Skye."

Hawko landed on Sova's shoulder, and he couldn't help but smile at the creature. "And you-" he said to the bird, "Don't ever flash me again, please. I get enough of that from Breach and Phoenix-"

Skye laughed again as she watched Sova return to petting her bird.

"No, Sova, but honestly-" she leaned forward, and rested one of her arms on the table. "Thanks for being 'ere with me. I enjoyed talking with ya'."

The hunter looked out of the corner of his eye at Skye. "I enjoyed this as well. Except for Hawko giving me a green seizure," he smiled.

After a few more moments of petting the bird and talking with Skye, Sova remembered that he had some things to get to.

He said his goodbyes and left the room, leaving Hawko and Skye by themselves in the workshop. Hawko flew over to his master's shoulder, landing on it gracefully.

"That man, kinda strange, isn't he?" she asked her bird, who just responded with a small and quiet chirp. "Oh, shut up you. I know you like him."

Hawko blinked before giving her another chirp of agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really like Skye at first, but she's kind of grown on me. (Hawko is adorable, change my mind.)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll update when I'm hit with a bolt of inspiration, ahaha.


	3. Sova and Sage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission doesn't end quite well for Sova.

"Omen! Don't push, there are multiple targets around the corner-"

The ghostly figure glared at Sova, and even without seeing his eyes, Sova knew that he wasn't going to listen. He ran around the wall, making Sova and Phoenix look at each other in confusion.

"Sova, I'll go with 'im, stay here and watch site-" Phoenix said, pointing at the ground. Before Sova could intervene, the other man rushed off after Omen.

The hunter silently cursed to himself, quickly unholstering his Sheriff and putting a finger to his earpiece. "Viper, how is everything at-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH SOVA," Viper hissed through her earpiece, followed by quick and uneven breaths. "NOT NOW." 

Sova sighed heavily, wondering how the mission suddenly went to shit in a matter of minutes. They were in Venice, currently at the battlefield codenamed Ascent. He was with his team to protect the radianite crates from being taken by the opposing clones from another world.

Unfortunately, the clones were being smart, and taking it slower than usual, rather than rushing in and forcing their way onto site. But, this caused uneasiness in most of the team, who were used to fighting immediately after their arrival.

Sova was not happy about the non-existent team chemistry this time around, but knew that he couldn't control his teammates. Instead of worrying about it too much, he climbed up a few boxes and sat on a small balcony of sorts that pretty much gave him vision of the entire site. Sadly, Raze wanted the Operator today, and all he had with him was his Phantom with few bullets left, and his trusty Sheriff. 

He was able to use any gun quite well, but he did miss the feeling of looking down a scope. For now, he would resort to the pistol in case anything went down.

A long moment of silent passed, and Sova started to get worried. There was absolutely no radio chatter whatsoever, making Sova unable to sit still in his position. He fiddled with the trigger on his pistol, switching his gaze between the multiple entrances to the site.

Suddenly, his earpiece started to make noise, a sort of static, followed by the loud yelp of the familiar demolitions expert. "PUSHING SITE! PUSHING SITE!" she yelled, with the sounds of multiple explosions in the background. Sova could also hear the explosions from where he was sitting, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where it came from.

"From where?" he asked, with a serious tone. No reply. "Where? Raze, where are they pushing from?" he asked again, hesitantly, slowly getting up from his position and glaring at all the possible ways that they could get into site.

He didn't wait any longer for a response, and reached over his shoulder for his bow. His bow clicked and latched into the correct form as Sova reached into his quiver with his free hand. Notching a recon arrow onto the electrical string, he pulled it back and aimed it at the entrance near the garden.

The raspy voice of Omen filled up his ear, "All sides."

Sova breathed in, quickly releasing the arrow into the garden.

The arrow revealed three clones, before being shot and destroyed. "Three in garden, I need backup here at site-" Sova whispered into his earpiece, leaning down below the balcony rail. The hunter waited and just barely poked his head over the railing.

He saw the clones from the garden look around frantically as they charged in, probably knowing that the hunter was nearby. The Killjoy clone was holding the device they called, "the spike," and was heading straight for the radianite crates that sat in the middle of site. Clones of Reyna and Jett also followed her, pointing their guns at the ready.

Footsteps could also be heard from the entrance near the garage, and soon Sova saw a clone of Brimstone and Breach charge in.

"Plant the spike!" the clone Brimstone shouted quite harshly at the Killjoy. She shot him an evil glare and started activating it.

"Spike is being planted," Sova whispered into his earpiece. "Behind the crate near the corner."

"On it!" Raze chimed in, and suddenly the thunderous sound of the Operator filled the air, and Sova watched as Killjoy's head slumped into an uncomfortable position as blood splattered out from the wound. Her entire body soon followed, and she fell over onto the concrete.

This caused the other clones to be on high alert and scurry behind some cover. 

"We're rushing them from behind-" Omen spoke, following up his statement with multiple gunshots. The clone Brimstone saw Omen and started to shoot back with his Vandal, but Phoenix was also there to provide support.

Sova saw Viper run out of the shadows below him and made contact with the enemy Breach. She managed to shoot him a few times in his armor, but he managed to pull out a flash and stun her for a moment, making her stumble a bit. 

"Viper!" Sova shouted from his spot, aiming his Sheriff at Breach. Just when the Breach looked up, a bullet flew straight through his brain, causing the clone to fall backwards and onto the floor.

The enemy Reyna noticed his however, and motioned over to her teammates that Sova was on the high ground. Suddenly, Sova saw a cluster of wind curve over to the balcony, completely blocking his vision.

Reyna poked her head out from the cover, and lifted up her Odin, aiming it at one of the wooden poles that held up the balcony. She started blasting into it, causing the rapid firing of the bullets to shred the wood and snap it completely.

Sova lost his balance as the entire balcony started to topple over, and he fell to the ground level with debris all around him. He landed on his stomach, making him lose the air in his lungs from the sudden impact. He coughed from the dust cloud that started to form around him, and quickly tried to reposition himself before Reyna continued to spray.

The sound of the Odin echoed in his ears as the Reyna continued to shoot.

He crawled over to one of the crumbled balcony pieces that landed on the ground, and hid his body behind that. It wouldn't completely block the bullet penetration, but at least it was something.

The maniacal laughter of the woman could strike fear into the hearts of the weak, but Sova was not about to give his life away today. Currently, he wasn't in a very good position, and there were very few things he could do from behind the concrete.

"Hey, vampire bitch-"

Sova heard the sudden thud of something as the bullets stopped spraying. He poked his head over the side, and saw that Viper had just clocked Reyna over the face with her fist.

Reyna cursed at her in Spanish and almost dropped the heavy gun onto the ground.

Before the clone could react, Viper pulled out her Shorty and bopped her twice in the head with clusters of pellets. It was not a pretty sight, but it got the job done, and Sova watched the clone topple over.

Viper scoffed before shooting the clone's body again for good measure. "Tsk, you would think that these clones would be harder to fight."

The sounds of wind rushing made Sova quickly dart his head to the other side of site, noticing the clone Jett start to retreat over the top of a building.

The clone Brimstone was currently getting pummeled to smithereens by Phoenix's shotgun and Omen's rifle as well, making the site clear of any hostilities. 

"Jett is retreating, over the building to the north."

"Forget about her for now, we need to secure this spike and take care of all these bodies," Viper ordered, running to site. "And if the little girl decides to come back, just kill her."

The team regrouped over on site, making sure the four clones that remained were staying dead. Raze and Phoenix gathered the bodies and shoved them into one pile, while Viper pulled out a canister of acid and threw it on top of them. Both Phoenix and Raze turned their heads away while Viper stared at the bodies to make sure nothing was off about them. Sova was carefully putting the spike into a sealed case, but he couldn't help but notice the bodies of the clones decaying rapidly underneath the chemicals.

It was always a strange thing, watching the bodies of his teammates shrivel up before him.

But, they were not his teammates.

_And yet, he still felt pity for them. They were just doing their jobs._

Sova took a deep breath and blinked a couple of times.

_No. Don't feel pity for the people who have done everything they could to destroy this world._

Omen suddenly teleported next to Viper, his form shaking and swaying as per usual. He said a few things to her, pointing his finger over somewhere. Viper didn't respond at first, but then she nodded and turned around to look at Sova. He saw Viper's gaze shift over to him, and he looked back to acknowledge her attention.

"Sova, go check the back building to see if there's anything we missed. Omen has contacted Cypher already, so be quick."

Sova nodded, and handed the spike over to Phoenix, who took it with extreme caution. Phoenix hated these little triangles of doom, and saw firsthand what they could do to the world if they were set off.

The hunter made his way over to the building that Viper mentioned, and noticed that the opening was almost completely blasted with some sort of explosive, leaving a giant hole in the entrance. He carefully stepped inside, and looked around.

There were a lot of maps on the walls of the area around them, with thumbtacks and strings connecting them together. There were a lot of empty ammunition boxes as well, with some broken rifle parts scattered about. He continued on inside and saw a small room with a table covered in various papers. The went through them quickly, seeing if any of the papers were worth anything to Valorant. Surprisingly, a few of them contained information about the next attacks on Ascent, and a couple more on the other battlefields. Satisfied with what he found, he rolled them up and started to leave the room, when suddenly his ears perked up.

He heard the sound of something moving... above him?

Turning around, he looked back up and saw the familiar figure of a white haired woman clinging to the foundation of the ceiling.

_Jett-_

The radiant hopped down, pulling out her shotgun and sticking it right up against Sova's ribcage. He threw the papers down and pushed her away with as much force as he could before-

_BANG! BANG!_

He felt his entire body go numb as a blast of pellets slammed into his chest, causing him to stagger back and fall onto his behind. She cackled at this, and aimed the gun at his head.

Before letting her shoot again or take another step, Sova yanked out his Sheriff and shot her in the leg, making her cry out in pain and fall on her knee. Then he took another shot at her right hand, causing her to release the gun from her grip.

"Ugh! You asshole-" the Jett cried out, holding her bleeding hand with the other. "Just die!" she yelled, throwing her whole body at the man. Sova reacted quickly with a swift kick to her jaw, and shuffled away from the clone that recoiled in pain. He didn't have time to reload his gun, so he quickly took out his knife and waited for the clone to strike again.

Jett hobbled over to him (even with an injured leg) and tried lashing out again with a punch. But Sova had experience with this kind of fighting before, and remembered to stay calm and trust his instincts in a situation like this. He waited for the fight moment... and then reached out with one hand, grabbing Jett's extended arm and twisting it in a way that made her entire body move with it. He turned her over, throwing her onto the ground, and shoved his knees into her back so she couldn't move. 

"AH-" Jett wailed, her face slamming into the floor below her. Sova's weight kept her pinned down, and her arm was completely in his control. She turned her face to the side, attempting to make conversation. "S-Sova, h-hey, there's no need to-"

Before she could continue, the hunter took his knife and thrusted it into her neck, causing the radiant to choke and sputter. Slowly, Jett's body stopped struggling, and laid lifeless on the floor. He crawled off of her, slowly sliding his knife back into its holster, and tried to stand.

Sova could feel his heart beating quickly. Too quickly.

He needed to calm himself down, before the-

The pain.

It hit him like a ton of bricks, slamming into his chest and heart. He was bleeding all over, the thick substance staining his clothing and hair while time went on. The hunter knew that he needed to push through the pain for now, and head back while he still had the energy.

Reaching over to the papers that he had rolled up before, he picked them back up with his bloody hands and supported himself on the wall. He reached up to his ear with one hand, turning on his comms.

"V-Viper..." he said, not noticing that it barely came out as a whisper. "Viper..."

"What?" Viper asked, her loud and demanding voice filling his ears.

Sova could barely hold himself together, his fingers shaking as he held the button down. "I've been sh-shot-" he struggled to say, looking down at his body.

"What?!" Viper asked again, but this time with a more annoyed tone. "Sova, what happened?"

Silence filled the air while Viper waited for a response.

She didn't receive one.

_\---_

"Sova- Sova-" Raze rushed over to the man, who was clutching his chest and having difficulty breathing. He was slumped over against the wall with his clothes stained with maroon from the point-blank gunshot to his chest, along with his blonde hair that looked awfully messy. "Sova, no, no-" Raze looked over at the others for some sort of idea on what to do. "We don't have a healer-"

"We need to get him back to base immediately," Viper interjected, pointing at Omen and Phoenix. "Omen, carry him back, Phoenix, take the spike. Raze, papers."

Omen grumbled, as he hated taking orders from Viper, but listened anyway and walked over to the injured man in Raze's arms.

"Give him to me," Omen ordered, and didn't wait for Raze to let go. Sova tried to stay calm, and pace his breathing, but still let out a small whimper when Omen lifted him up so suddenly.

"Omen!" Raze cried out, her hand still grasping Sova's arm. "Be careful- he just got shot!"

The shadow grunted to her and continued to carry Sova in his arms, being a bit more "careful."

The team quickly headed over to the rendezvous point, where the ship piloted by Cypher waited. Cypher greeted them happily with a tip of his hat as they hopped on, but quickly noticed the mood of the entire team turning sour. "What's- _oh no-_ " Cypher said, noticing his friend Sova on the verge of death in Omen's arms.

"Leave, now," Viper ordered, walking over to the medkit that hung on the wall of the ship. Cypher didn't need to hear her twice, as he lifted off and started flying back to base. "Contact Sage, let her know she'll have someone to deal with when we get back."

\---

Sage knew that someone had been injured on the mission, but no one told her who, until she saw it for herself. The ship had landed back onto the temporary base near Ascent, and Sage was ready for anything, as usual. People got injured all the time when they went on missions, so this was nothing new.

But when she saw who it was, her heart sank a little.

Sova rarely got injured, as he was probably one of the more cautious agents in the Valorant Protocol. He was usually in the sidelines, supporting the team from afar or providing intel with his tech. Yeah, sure, he would get a few scrapes here and there, but judging from the amount of blood on his and Omen's body, this was no scrape. His cape and shirt were already taken off, with plenty of bandages wrapped around his wounds.

"Follow me," she said to Omen, leading him over to the makeshift medbay that was used in this base. Omen set Sova's body down onto a small cot, and looked at Sage in the eyes for a moment before leaving.

Sage carefully removed the bandages that were already soaked through, and carefully examined the wounds.

Viper had said that she removed most of the pellets from his body on the ship, allowing Sage to start healing his wounds with her radiant orb. A light blue aura shined brightly around her fingertips as she waved her hands around Sova's body. She would have liked it to have Skye with her, but the newest recruit was on another mission in Haven at the moment. So for now, Sage was the only healer at base, _like usual_.

"Sova," Sage said, kneeling down next to him and continuing to move her hands around him. "Sova, you're still with me- correct?"

The hunter's eyes shifted a bit, and opened very slowly. He tries to respond, but his eyes fluttered for a moment before closing again. His breathing was very ragged and slow, making Sage worry.

"No, do not rest now. I need you to stay with me, Sova."

Sage had a hard time expressing her feelings through tone. People would always say she sounded like she didn't actually care about others, making it hard for her to remain in long-term relationships. But Sova, he never complained. He never judged her for being unable to express her feelings through the tone in her voice. It's like he was always able to tell what she was feeling, even without hearing her speak. 

She enjoyed the time she spent with him, and loved hearing his hunting stories that he would tell to the team on rest days. He would even offer her a hand in cooking or cleaning, something that Sage usually had to do herself before Sova ever joined Valorant.

Seeing him now, dying in front of her, made Sage feel so uncomfortably worried.

And the worst part was, it didn't seem like his breathing was getting any better. She noticed his chest stop moving up and down with each breath he took, and his prosthetic eye's light started to dim down a bit.

"No, Sova, no."

Sage pulled out another orb and increased her focus on him. She could not- she _would not_ let him die. It was her job to make sure the team was in top shape. It was her job to make sure the team stayed in good spirits. 

It was her job to make sure her team stayed _alive._

Without any warning, she felt something cold reach up and lightly grasp one of her hands. She looked down, and saw that Sova had grabbed ahold of her hand and was now smiling at her, with pain in his eyes. She had never seen Sova like this before, and it _scared_ her.

"Please, stay with me-" Sage whispered, trying her hardest to retain professionalism. She could barely hold back the tears in her eyes.

Sova didn't say anything to her, but just continued to look deeply into her eyes, as if he was trying to tell her something. But Sage didn't know what he was trying to say-

"You're fine, just stay with me-" she muttered with a returning smile back at him.

Unfortunately, Sova didn't get to see it, as his facial expression became very stiff. The light in his eyes disappeared. The grasp on her hand was released as his arm fell over the side of the cot.

"S-Sova?" Sage whispered, her breathing becoming uneven. "No. No. Sova-"

She didn't want to accept it. But, something apart of her knew that he was gone. She stopped healing him, and took a deep breath as she put the healing orb away, and instead stood up on her feet.

She knew what had to be done.

This happened plenty of times before with the other agents, especially on the field. They die, she resurrects, rinse and repeat. But for some reason, this felt different. She wanted to cry.

But crying would hinder her performance, so she closed her eyes, calmed her breathing, and focused on the radiant energy that flowed through her body. She pushed some loose strands of hair back, and breathed in, and out.

Resurrection always took a toll on her mind and body, and she couldn't do it every day, for she would probably pass out and be out of commission for a while if she did.

But this was important, and she would take the risk for her friend.

A light blue aura started to glow around her hands. They sparkled with a silvery shine, and emitted this unique noise of some sort of heavenly light.

She looked down at the body in front of her, and took a deep breath. She started moving her hands around in a specific motion, the light following it and swirling around her entire body.

The light soon spread over to Sova's body, and Sage whispered a small prayer to herself before activating her power. She lifted her hands, and as if she was puppeting Sova's body, his entire form was lifted up into the air and started to become covered with an crystal-like shell.

After a few moments, she lowered her hands and the crystals shattered into many pieces, leaving only the body of Sova behind. His eyes shot open as he fell to the floor, landing on his two feet but almost falling over. 

Sova's prosthetic eye also started to light back up, and the man breathed in heavily for a few moments before looking at Sage. "That- so that's how it feels-" he breathed, slighting laughing underneath the pain. Sage quickly went over to him.

"Sova," she said, grabbing ahold of his arm. "Sit."

Sova noticed the tired look on her face. He sat, without hesitation, and looked over his body.

He was still in pain, but not as much as before, as the gunshot wounds were now just leftover scars on his body. Sage also looked over him again to make sure he was alright.

"I can heal these scars," she said, pulling out her healing orb. "Just remain still, this shouldn't take long-"

"Sage-" Sova said, lightly raising his hand, making sure it didn't seem aggressive at all. "Thank you."

The healer just sighed and nodded her head with a smile. "It's my duty to make sure you are all safe and alive. I'm sorry I could not save you from death."

"It's not your fault," he assured, looking away as Sage's powers started to go over his scars. The light looked cold and menacing, but as it passed over his skin, it felt warm and very soothing. "It's mine. I should have been more careful. If only I checked the entire room beforehand-"

"Sova, we've talked about this before. We all make mistakes, do not beat yourself up about them."

The room was silent for a moment as the healer continued to use her powers on the hunter. Sage knew that Sova was super hard on himself when he made mistakes, even if he didn't act like it. She remembered this one time where he missed a shot on a clone, who then proceeded to take a shot at Sage (only in the shoulder, it was easily healed). But even though Sage was fine, Sova remained in the shooting range for days, not eating or sleeping. She had a few chats with him about this habit of his, and he was never disrespectful to her for being concerned, (unlike a certain radiant who would always yell or get annoyed when Sage brought up her concerns).

The next few minutes were quiet and relaxing. Sova closed his eyes while Sage continued to heal the scars on his body that were left behind.

A sudden knock on the door surprised the both of them, making their heads turn to look at the entrance. They saw the one and only Brimstone himself, poking his head in the medbay.

"Sage. Sova," he greeted, walking in and over to the two agents. 

"Greetings, Captain," Sova replied, giving him a nod.

Brimstone looked over Sova, who looked a lot better than what Raze explained. He still looked like a mess, with dried blood still staining his hair and the many small scars that were scattered throughout his chest. "Are you alright?" Brimstone asked, knowing full well what Sova was going to say.

"Yes, Captain."

Sage quickly turned her head over to Brimstone before Sova could say any more. "He should have a-"

"Yes, Sage. He'll be given a week off to rest and heal."

Sage nodded slowly and returned to healing him.

Sova was about to open his mouth and assure the Captain that he would be fine, but Brimstone raised his hand, letting Sova know that he would not change his mind.

The Captain gave a final salute before heading out and leaving the two alone once more.

"I really don't think I need the week off," Sova said, brushing a hand through his hair (which felt super icky, and he immediately regretted the decision). Sage tiled her head up and glared into his eyes for a moment, sending Sova a very clear message. His own eyes widened as he awkwardly laughed, saying, "Alright, I get it. Some rest would do me some good-"

"Yes, it would. I know you haven't been sleeping well lately because of all the recent work that has been given to you." She held up one finger. "And don't even lie to me saying that I'm wrong."

"Okay, Sage. I understand."

"Good."

After a while of healing and recovery, Sage handed Sova an extra shirt that they kept in the medbay. He finally managed to rinse off the blood from his hands (telling Sage that he'll just wash out the blood from his hair later), and dressed himself with the shirt.

As Sova was about to leave, he felt a hand grab onto his wrist. He looked back to see the healer looking down at the floor, clenching her free hand into a fist.

"Sova... please do me one favor," she said, tightening her grip on his wrist.

He nodded, and proceeded to hold her hand with both of his. "Yes?"

She took a deep breath, before slowly moving forward and wrapping her arms around the hunter. It was almost as if it was a subconscious action, as she didn't really understand what she had just done.

Sova was also quite surprised, as he had never seen Sage hug someone before. She usually kept to herself- so this action was really strange. He looked down at the healer before him, and then returned the hug with a soft smile on his face.

"I know what you mean, Sage," the hunter whispered to her. "Thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I very lightly ship the two. Nothing too big, just a smol pairing. Romance isn't something I usually like to write, so I tend to push it to the sidelines a lot.
> 
> But hey, thanks for reading. The mission was actually based off a true story on one of my Ascent games, (obviously a little twisted to make it more... realistic? Something like that-) where I got blasted in the back by a Jett with a shotgun after we defused the spike :))))))
> 
> (I swear, the only reason I exist on my team is to be the bait-)


	4. Sova and Killjoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killjoy can't sleep, bringing her to Sova.

It was late at night, and Killjoy was still chugging her fourth cup of coffee to give her that extra boost she needed to stay awake. She was really focused on finishing her project before resting because she didn't want to forget anything when she woke up the next day.

To her surprise, the door to the workshop slid open, and she quickly set down her coffee cup, thinking it was Brimstone catching her in the act. But instead, she saw the familiar face of the Russian hunter. 

"Oh! Hallo Sova!" Killjoy greeted, giving him a huge wave above her head. He gave her a slight nod in response, but didn't immediately walk in. He instead waited in the doorframe, and motioned his hand toward the room in front of him.

"May I come in? Just for a moment."

Killjoy's eyes widened and she shot up from her chair. "Ja! Ja, of course! Come in, come in!" she approved, welcoming him in with a hand gesture. The hunter lightly smiled and walked in with slow steps, admiring the workshop interior.

"So, what brings you here? It's quite late yknow?" Killjoy said, pushing some things around on her desk to make it seem a bit cleaner, (but it was way too trashed for it to be saved at this point). 

"I could say the same, Killjoy," Sova replied, pointing to her cup of coffee. "Does the Captain know you're awake?"

Killjoy squinted at the man, giving him a pouty face. "Does it matter? Shouldn't you be in bed? Resting? Because you _died?_ "

Sova lightly scoffed with a smirk and crossed his arms. "It was merely a joke-"

"Ja, ja, I know. I'm just pulling your strings, hunter," Killjoy laughed and pushed up the glasses on her face. She sat back down, and offered Sova a seat. He held up his hand and politely declined.

"I'm just here to ask if I could borrow one of your tools."

"A tool?" Killjoy's eyes lit up, glancing over at the man. She scooched her chair back so she had room to pull out the drawer that was underneath her desk. In it, revealed a bunch of loose tools and other mysterious parts that clattered against one another. "What kind?"

Sova thought for a moment while he looked at the mess of tools. "Just one of those small screwdrivers you have. I don't know where mine went... so I asked Cypher for one and he directed me here."

The techie blinked a few times. "Wait, wait. Cypher directed you to _me?_ Instead of just giving you his _own_ screwdriver?"

Sova shrugged, knowing that Cypher and Killjoy had some sort of techie/engineering rivalry that he didn't really understand, (but definitely fun to watch from the sidelines at times). Killjoy made a weird pouty noise before grabbing a screwdriver and handing it over to Sova, who took it carefully with both hands. He examined it closely, making sure the measurement was the one that he required.

"Ah, yes. This will do. Thank you, Killjoy."

Killjoy nodded and watched as the man gave her a small wave of thanks before leaving the workshop. Taking a deep breath, she chugged her coffee and continued to work (right after sending a little email to Cypher.)

\---

Hours passed and Killjoy had finally finished her project. She lifted up the glasses from her face and rubbed her eyes with the back of one hand. She had finished so many pots of coffee, that she felt like never drinking another cup of the stuff ever again. The techie grabbed the machine that she was working on and set it down on the floor below her. The alarm-bot whirred to live and started moving around her feet, nudging into her ankles and making little happy beeps.

"I'm done! _Ich bin erschöpft..."_ she yawned, leaning back into her chair and closing her eyes. Killjoy took a second to rest her eyes before leaning back up and cleaning up some of the loose scraps of metal and wires on her desk. She also shoved her blueprints into a neat folder and returned it back into its place on her file cabinet.

As she got up from her chair, she used her wristband to recall her bot, making sure to give it a happy smile, then walked over to the sofa that sat off to the side of the workshop. She thought for a moment about just calling it a day and laying on this couch instead of walking all the way back to her room. Slumping over into the cushions, she closed her eyes, happy that she got all her work done.

She took a deep breath.

Rolled over onto one side.

Rolled over onto her other side.

Stretched out her arms and legs.

_Aw Scheiße..._

Her eyes shot open.

Killjoy couldn't sleep. She couldn't determine whether it was from the caffeine or from something else. Sitting up, she rubbed her face with her hands and put her glasses back on. She was in that state where she was exhausted as all heck, yet equally as awake. 

"Ugh..." she moaned, knowing that she would definitely not be able to sleep for the next few hours, and that she would have to suffer from the sluggish feeling. "What to do... what to do..." she pondered, looking around the workshop for something to do.

Raze's workspace was just splattered with a bunch of paint and littered with wires all over the surrounding floor, making her area a death trap for anyone stupid enough to just wander around aimlessly. Also, there were explosives on her desk (Killjoy hoped that they were not live explosives) and a bunch of gun parts scattered about.

She could mess around with Cypher's desk, but that wouldn't be fun since he mostly did his tinkering in his own room, basically leaving nothing at the workshop for people to see besides a couple metal scraps. Killjoy knew that even though his desk in the workshop was clean, the one in his personal room was a fucking mess (even more than Raze's workspace). Killjoy chuckled at the thought, before looking back at her own workspace.

It wasn't necessarily clean, but it wasn't a complete dump either. She liked to keep at least some of the tech organized, so she could easily look for old projects or write down new ideas she had on the spot. When people visited her workshop, she wouldn't feel embarrassed or awkward in the slightest, in fact, she loved when people visited her.

_Oh!_

She remembered how Sova had visited her just a few hours ago and wondered if he was still awake. If he was, perhaps she could pay him a visit!

Killjoy got up from the sofa and stretched her arms above her head before heading out and over to Sova's room. It wasn't very far, just a few corridors over from the workshop. 

She stood in front of the door to his room, and knocked a few times.

There was the sound of some sort of shuffling behind the door, and soon the door slid open to reveal the man himself, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He looked up at the woman, and blinked a few times before smiling.

"Killjoy," Sova greeted, fully opening the door and lifting up his hand in a wave. "Didn't expect to see you here at this hour."

The man looked tired, his eyes half-closed and his body sulking just so slightly, it was barely recognizable. He definitely wasn't hyped up on any sort of caffeine.

Killjoy put her hands on her hips and stood proudly. "Ja, I'm too caffeinated to sleep! I came to visit you and see what you were doing instead," she did a little hop to prove to Sova that she still had much energy inside of her. 

"Well... I'm not doing much right now..." Sova looked back for a moment, then back at Killjoy. He motioned his hand toward his room. "You can come in, if you would like to see."

Killjoy rubbed her hands together and nodded quickly.

Sova led her inside and slowly shut the door behind him, to prevent any slam that could awaken the other agents that were sleeping. Killjoy was super amazed to see how clean and tidy Sova's room was (compared to her own) and started to look around. She walked over to some bookshelves that had some really old books shelved in them, and then over to some of the picture frames on his wall that showed very simple paintings.

While Killjoy was geeking out over his bedroom, Sova walked back over to his little workspace area to continue on what he was working on before. He sat down, rubbed his face a few times, then started to mess with his bow.

Killjoy's ears perked up when she heard mysterious clicking sound from behind her, and immediately turned her head to see what this noise was. She saw the hunter working on his bow, prying something off of it with a small piece of metal. 

She just noticed how Sova wasn't actually wearing his cloak, allowing Killjoy to see his shoulders and neck fully. It was a strange sight that she rarely ever got to see, and it surprised her each time she noticed.

She pushed up the glasses on her face and shifted over to him to get a better look at his bow.

_Sova's bow! Oh, I've never been this close to it before-_

Killjoy loved watching other people work on technology, especially if she knew nothing about it. Sova never really asked the others for help whenever he was working on a project, but Killjoy knew it wasn't because he disliked the others, but probably because he just liked to work in peace (similar to Cypher). She watched the man pry off the part and set it to the side. He poked what looked to be a small latch of sorts a few times while Killjoy watched.

"What's the matter?" Killjoy inquired, leaning down and looking closely at the area Sova was messing with, curious to see if she could lend a hand.

Sova started to unscrew a few things with the small screwdriver that Killjoy had given him earlier. He smiled a bit at the question, and replied with, "I was on a mission in Icebox a few days back- you were there, correct?"

Killjoy nodded.

"Remember how Phoenix thought it would be a good idea to _climb on top of the crate to get a better look at the site?"_

Her eyes widened as a flow of memories hit her. "Oh! Ja, I remember the two of you getting lifted up into the air because the clone had taken control of the crane," she giggled, pointing a finger at Sova. "Didn't the two of you fall? I'm pretty sure I remember seeing you guys topple over the edge."

Sova lightly scoffed and set the tool down on the table. "I didn't _fall,_ Killjoy. Phoenix lost his balance and decided that the best idea he could come up with on the spot was to _grab onto my cloak_ when he was falling backwards." The hunter smirked, remembering the situation clearly. "Phoenix landed in some snow, _lucky him_. I did as well, but I landed right on top of my bow that usually sits on my back."

Killjoy recoiled slightly from that. "Oof. Sounds painful."

"Ah, it wasn't that bad. But I think my bow got damaged somehow when I landed on it." He grabbed his bow and showed it to Killjoy. He extended the sides of it, the bow clicking into place and allowing the electric string to fully activate. "See?" he asked, shaking the bow a small bit.

Killjoy typically was quite good at seeing the flaws in technology, but she hadn't been around Sova's tech for a long enough time to see what exactly was wrong with it. "Ah, no. I don't actually see the problem, Sova." 

"Oh, I guess it is just something I would notice, if you think about it..." he deactivated the bow, then reactivated it again, checking to see if he was still correct about it being flawed. "The amount of time it takes for the string to activate is slightly delayed," he continued, once more turning the bow off and on.

"You're the only one who uses your bow, Sova," Killjoy chuckled, tilting her head to the side. "Of course I wouldn't notice something like that." She was always mesmerized by how the bow unwrapped itself in such a smooth way.

Sova smiled sadly and set his bow back down onto the table. "Sorry," he apologized. He returned to his seating position and sighed. "Since I've been given time off, I decided to try and fix the mechanism. For some reason, each time I'm done fixing it, the bow goes back to being delayed- now this isn't something that is super detrimental to the missions and to my abilities, it's just..."

"Annoying?" Killjoy commented.

Sova looked up at her and nodded. "Yes. Annoying."

Killjoy leaned over his table and thought for a moment, looking at the exterior of the bow. Sova leaned back, giving her some space, and took this moment to stretch his arms.

"Mmm... could I lend a hand? It's always fun messing with- er- fixing new tech! Fixing. I fix things."

There was a pause between the two, and Sova raised his eyebrow at the techie. "You fix things," he repeated, with almost no emotion in his voice.

"I fix things!" Killjoy repeated happily, picking up some random tool from the table and waving it around a bit to try and emphasize her point. When the hunter didn't respond, she bent over and put her hands together as if she was praying (or begging). "Ohhhh please Sova- let me help! I really want to help you- I won't change anything or mess with anything inside of your bow! _Ich verspreche!"_

The hunter looked down at the girl, who was leaning over so much that her beanie and glasses almost slid off of her head. He trusted her, to an extent. Any of the doubt that he had about her was probably from hearing Cypher complain all the time about her messing with his tripwires and camera. But then again, that was just Cypher's bias, and Sova knew that the young woman had a good heart.

He got up from his chair and wandered over to his closet. Killjoy lifted her head and watched as the man rummaged around in there for a solid minute, then pulled out a foldable chair. Sova walked back over to Killjoy and held out the chair with one hand. "Sit. Let's get to work before I keel over from exhaustion," he said with his tired eyes.

The German techie gasped and grinned widely while snatching the chair from his hand and slamming it down next to the table.

_Oh mein Gott! I get to work on Sova's bow! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT AHHHH-_

Killjoy did well in hiding her excitement while Sova started to explain how his bow worked. She listened carefully and took mental notes while he spoke. 

Sova was surprised at how quiet this lady could be when she was focused on something. She was usually very peppy, but had this cool and collected side that made Sova really appreciate working with her. He obviously didn't specify every little detail related to his bow, but Killjoy could probably piece together the information she received. He loved how perceptive Killjoy was, and how quickly she could get a grasp on some new information (he could also see why this would probably annoy someone like his Moroccan friend). 

But when he stopped speaking, Killjoy would shoot another few questions back, making sure she understood everything that she was working with. She didn't want to accidentally break something in his bow, as she knew how special it was to Sova. 

They messed around with it for a while, going back and forth on certain ideas that they had, and what could possibly be done to fix it. An hour or so passed before the lady finally found the problem. Sova immediately got to work, taking apart almost a fourth of his bow and putting it back together again.

Killjoy resisted the urge to ask the question of borrowing his eye for analysis. It was so mesmerizing to look at though, and every once in a while she had to psychically turn her whole body to prevent her from staring at the mysterious piece of tech for too long, while Sova pretended not to notice.

During the reconstruction of the upper limb of the bow, Killjoy wondered how Sova got ahold of this wonderful thing. "Sova, where did you get your bow?" she asked, tapping the table a few times with her finger. The man glanced up for a moment at the woman, before looking back at what he was working on. 

"I made it myself."

"NO WAY-" Killjoy responded, a little too loudly. "You MADE the bow? FROM SCRATCH?"

"Da. I did. Also the drone."

"W-" she paused for a moment, thinking about what to say. "Where did you learn how to do all this?" she asked, motioning to his bow, and the little drone that sat to the side, away from the current mess. "I thought you came from the tundra?"

Sova chuckled a bit before responding with, "You are correct. Is that strange?"

Killjoy squinted his eyes at him. "But, how did you learn?"

Sova's eyes went dull for a moment. "Uh..." He tilted his head to the side, but didn't take his eyes off of the bow. "I had to learn a lot on my own... and... tech was always fun to tinker with, especially to a curious young boy like me."

"Mmm. Interesting," she replied, not entirely happy with the answer he gave. "But, why a _bow_? I know you're a hunter, but why the bow and not something like... a gun?"

"Hunting, of course. A bullet heavily damages the meat and fur, Killjoy. An arrow does not." He set the screwdriver down and started to work on a different part of the bow. "Also, does this look like an ordinary bow to you? Because trust me, it's much more than that."

KIlljoy clicked her tongue while she thought. "Yeah, I guess you're right." 

She pulled out a little handcloth from her jacket's pocket and started to wipe her glasses with it. When she was younger, the only weapon that she was taught how to use was a firearm. She couldn't imagine the amount of skill it took to use a bow _and_ a gun in the middle of a firefight, making her remember just how much respect she had for the hunter.

Her mind wandered over to the thought of living in the tundra. It would be hard to hunt there, for sure, with all the horrible weather and dangerous animals. It's a wonder how this man was still alive. How did he survive? Did he hunt with other people? What made Sova into the man he was today?

"So, what did you hunt?" Killjoy managed to ask through a yawn. She could feel herself finally calming down from that energy boost.

"Mostly animals."

" _...mostly_ animals?"

Sova could feel his body getting warmer from the heat of the anger building up inside of him- not towards Killjoy- but towards a past memory that he wished he never had to look back on. He took a sharp breath, and breathed out slowly, suddenly letting the exhaustion weigh down on his mind.

_Why did I respond with that? Sova, you idiot._

He set two fingers on the bridge of his nose, and continued to breath slowly.

"Yes."

The response was cold and quiet, sending mysterious shivers up the techie's spine. She had heard Sova speak with a very direct tone before, but that was usually on missions (yet he would still speak without any sort of tone that represented ill intent, which is what vibe Sova was emitting right at this moment). Killjoy got the message, despite wanting to know more.

"O-kaaay..." she said, setting her glasses back on her face. "Sorry..."

Sova shook his head, raising one hand. He didn't mean to make Killjoy feel bad about what she said. "No, no, do not be sorry. I'm just..." his gaze peered over his bow that was just about fixed. "It's hard, talking about something I wished I never remembered in the first place."

He resisted the urge to reach up and touch the scar that sat on his right eye.

Killjoy slightly frowned, saddened by Sova's words. He pushed a few strands of hair out of his face and finalized repairing the bow as she watched in silence for the rest of the work.

She absolutely despised the feeling of being down in the dumps, and she wanted it to go away immediately. 

When Sova was finally done, he stood up, and extended the bow out, causing the string to stretch into place. He did it a few more times, making sure everything was in order.

"Is it fixed?" Killjoy asked, mesmerized once again, her mood lifting all of a sudden, eager to hear Sova say the final words.

After a few more activations, Sova smiled softly and nodded. "It's not delayed anymore, Слава Богу." He was relieved to have finally removed the problem, but he didn't forget who had helped him find it in the first place. He extended a palm out towards Killjoy, in a high-five position.

Killjoy would never miss a high-five, and slapped Sova's hand happily in return. "Great!"

"Thanks for lending a hand today," Sova said, setting his bow back down. Killjoy got up from her chair, knowing that she had probably overstayed her welcome. She took off her beanie with one hand a ruffled her hair a bit.

"It's no problem, Sova. I really enjoyed learning about your bow! It's amazing, honest. I could use your help on some of the projects I'm going to work on in the future, if you don't mind!" She gave him a toothy grin and he nodded.

"Anytime."

"Alright well, I'm going to go now, I don't want you to start getting sick of me," she laughed. "Good night! Thanks for having me over!"

"Good night, Killjoy." 

He watched the techie skip away and out of his room. Hopefully she would be heading to her own room to get some sleep, since it already was considered early morning.

Sleeping sounded like a good idea, so he turned off the lights and fell into his bed, without even going under the blankets. He sunk into the mattress and closed his eyes, glad that he was finally able to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Killjoy's outfit, it's very neat. (I, personally, would never wear that bright yellow jacket, but hey, it looks great on her, and that's all that matters.)
> 
> Also, I'm excited about the new snowball mode!! Can't wait to skate around and get pummeled with snow in 10 fps 🙃. (Also holy cow that Candy Cane "knife" is the greatest thing I've ever seen. It's so stupid, I love it.)
> 
> Side Note: I'm not versed in any other languages besides English, so I'm trying to make sure that the words and phrases the agents use (Killjoy's German, Sova's Russian, etc.) are actually the correct ones. If I make any mistakes, don't hesitate to let me know! I shall change it as soon as possible. 👍
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Updates will probably be slower from now on, but I'll do my best to write when I'm free.


	5. Sova and Cypher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sova and Cypher go check out a potential threat. 
> 
> A/N: This is a long chapter, feel free to take a break in between.

It was currently a slow day over on A-Site. Brimstone had gotten word about another attack on the radianite crates that were going to be shipped, and sent a team out to prevent any sort of interference. 

Currently the team was at the temporary base near the site, and Jett was annoying Reyna about competing for kills, with Skye in the sidelines silently laughing at the entire ordeal. Sova was sitting on one of the crates, messing around with his drone, and Cypher was looking through his camera for any signs of the attackers.

"Oh!" Cypher exclaimed, quickly deactivating his camera and looking towards the others. "I saw someone near the market."

"Finally," Reyna announced, sick of listening to Jett. She stood up and walked over to the man, her boots clicking against the concrete with each step. "Who was it?"

"Can't tell. The figure was behind some carts."

"Unfortunate. Who's going to check it out?" Reyna asked the team, placing a hand on her hip.

"I'm going, of course," Cypher said, stuffing his gadget back into his coat.

"I'll go with him," Sova responded, raising his hand up into the air.

Reyna sighed, probably hoping that Jett would have gone instead, but then she nodded and walked back to her original seating position. Jett took this opportunity to continue speaking about all of the epic kills she got on the last mission.

Sova hopped down from the crate he was sitting on and gave a nod towards Cypher. The two of them quickly gathered their things and told the others that they were about to leave. 

Skye waved, giving the two men a big grin. "Stay safe! Remember to send us an update every once in a while, yeah?" she said, tapping her earpiece.

Cypher nodded. "Of course, Skye."

Jett glided over to them and gave both a light punch on the shoulder. "Go wreck some faces," she smirked, causing Reyna to scoff slightly. Sova lightly smiled and Cypher gave a thumbs up. 

"Let's go," the Sentinel said to Sova, turning around. Sova followed, and the two of them began their little journey over to the market.

Sova could have sworn he heard Reyna say, "Don't die this time," but he chose to ignore it for now. He didn't have to prove anything to her.

The two agents traversed through the sandy alleyways, the sun's rays shining down onto their heads. According to Cypher, the market wasn't too far away, but the way there was a tad bit confusing. Sova agreed, but he was used to remembering certain landmarks in places that looked the same throughout the area.

Cypher glanced back at the hunter who was following behind him. "Aren't you a little hot in that cloak, Sova?" Cypher chuckled, still moving at the same pace. Sova looked up from the ground and raised an eyebrow.

"Says the one who is wearing an enormous coat that almost reaches the ground. Oh, and let us not forget about your hat."

"But that fur around your neck? And those gloves?"

"Your neck is encased in that turtleneck and mask of yours, and at least a part of _my_ gloves are fingerless."

Cypher and Sova both smiled. They were best friends, of course, and they couldn't help but mess with one another. It helped lighten the mood most of the time, but they usually only joked around when they were both alone. It's like they trusted each other to the point where making jokes didn't seem like a hindrance to their performance.

Cypher stopped moving forward, and held an arm out to his side, letting Sova know to stop as well. The information broker crouched down, and the hunter followed.

"We're almost there. Let's keep a low profile," Cypher whispered.

"Agreed."

The two of them slowly made their way forward, into the marketplace. The area was full of carts, some were still standing, but most of them were knocked over and trashed or shattered into small wooden pieces. The opening above the marketplace was covered mostly in various cloths, allowing the sunlight to still shine through yet provide some shade.

They found a few wooden pillars near the side of the market, near some buildings. Cypher and Sova hid behind their own pillar, and slid up against them.

They looked around the area for a moment, seeing if there was anything out of the ordinary.

"My camera is just around the corner, near the back," Cypher pointed.

Sova couldn't see anything strange, so he looked back at his friend. "Perhaps you should check the camera again."

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing." Cypher pulled out his device that allowed him to look through his camera, and activated it. Not even a second later, Cypher flinched and tightened his grip on the device in his hand. 

"What's wrong?" Sova asked.

Cypher whispered a small curse in Arabic to himself before slowly tucking the device back into his coat. "Destroyed my camera with a bullet. They were waiting for me to reactivate it."

"Ah."

Cypher waves a hand in front of him and shakes his head. "It's fine, whatever. It's always bound to happen eventually." His head lowers to the ground for a moment. "But damn, I could have sworn that spot was perfect." After a quick 30 seconds of regret, Cypher shakes his head once more and lifts it back up. "No time to think about that right now. Sova, even though my camera was destroyed, this confirms the presence of someone."

"Indeed. Let's stay here for a bit, see if we spot anything funny."

"Alright. I have some tripwires placed around this area, so keep your ears open."

The two agents wait for a bit, with Sova peeking around the corner every so often, and Cypher flipping a tripwire between his fingers to pass the time.

"You have to teach me that sometime," Sova whispered.

Cypher smirked under his mask and continued to play with the trap.

More minutes pass, and Sova was just about to call it quits. He leaned against the pillar and sighed. "Perhaps they rotated around this... area..." Sova trailed off when he saw Cypher's bright eyes widen. The Moroccan lifted his head up and looked over to his left, then tucked the tripwire back into his pocket.

"A tripwire was activated, to the east." He waited a moment, seeing if a certain something would happen. A few seconds passed, and he looked over at Sova. "It was destroyed."

Sova tilted his head. "I didn't hear anything. How far away is it?"

"Not too far. I can go check on it real quick."

Sova didn't like the idea of splitting up, but he knew Cypher could handle his own weight.

"Okay. I'll stay here and watch this area. Be safe, Cypher."

The broker nodded and slid into the shadows closer to the buildings. Sova watched him turn around a corner and disappear, leaving the hunter alone with his own thoughts.

\---

A long while passed, and Sova was getting worried, not just about Cypher, but also the fact that there wasn't any sort of movement around this area. He was starting to get bored watching the sand whirl past his feet, and decided to contact base.

He lifted his finger and held it up to his ear, almost activating the comms, until a familiar sound caused his entire body to freeze. His instincts kicked in, and he immediately lowered his entire body behind the same pillar as before.

The sound was a series of beeps, definitely from one of the tripwires that Cypher mentioned he placed down earlier. Sova poked his head out from cover and over to the general area where the sound came from. Suddenly, the beeps were followed by a few quick gunshots, then what sounded like a mini-explosion.

Someone came stumbling out of that alleyway near the back of the market, mumbling something to herself and throwing her hands up furiously.

"Stupid... trap! I'm sick of... seeing these... things."

Sova recognized that accented voice and orange cap, confirming for himself that it was Raze.

_Or at least, a clone of her.  
_

Sova noticed that the Raze looked dazed and wasn't walking straight, probably from the trap. She fumbled over to a cart and leaned against it with one arm, trying to shake off the effect. The hunter recognized his prey and took this chance to strike, shuffling out of cover over to a cart that was a bit closer to her. He pulled out his rifle and aimed for the clone, pulling the trigger without a second thought.

Raze saw movement out of the corner of her eye, something blue, quick, and _dangerous._ She managed to duck out of the way just in time for a bullet to graze her shoulder, as she fell to the floor. Sova squints and ducks behind cover again, pulling out his bow and calculating just how much he should charge this next shot. He aims overhead, clicking a button on his bow a few times before releasing the shock dart into the air. 

A few seconds pass and he hears sparks fly followed by a small shriek of pain from the enemy Raze.

Sova hears her shout something at him in Portuguese, indicating that she was still alive. He didn't understand what she was saying, but he got the general idea.

The hunter decided to wait until she made her next move.

Instead, he hears the sound of a pin being pulled, followed by a series of beeps. Knowing exactly what that noise was, he scurried away from his current position, with the sight of a cluster of grenades flying above his head, landing near him. They exploded multiple times, pushing Sova back a bit, but he was far away enough to where he wasn't hurt. Splinters of wood flew all around him from the side carts that got caught in the explosion, some of them catching on fire. He stood up, realizing he wasn't in cover and turned his head over to Raze.

The daze must have worn off by now, and he saw Raze's head lift up from one of the carts. This suddenly turned into a game of "which agent is the quicker one," as they both lifted their rifles.

_Shoot first._

But before Sova even pulled the trigger, something flew past- no- _through_ her head, causing blood to leak out from both sides. It didn't look pretty, but Sova got the time to run over to another pillar and get some cover. The fire was starting to spread throughout the market, air becoming thicker with each passing second.

Raze's arms drooped to her sides as her entire body just started to fail functioning. Her fingers loosened and the gun slipped out and fell to the ground, shortly followed by her entire body.

The hunter didn't let his guard down. Someone had taken the time to shoot her instead of him, but that didn't mean it was an ally. He lifted his arm with the drone attached, and was about to release it in order to scout out who it was, but he heard a voice calling out to him.

"Sova! It's me!"

Sova turned his head out of cover to look, rifle still in his hands. 

"Cypher?" Sova asked, surprised that Cypher was back.

The man held up both of his hands, with his signature ghost in one and gave a wave with the other. "Sova! Are you alright?" he asked, looking near the pillar Sova was hiding behind. "We should get out of here, this entire place is going to go up in flames."

Sova noticed it was getting a bit hotter with the flames spreading around the wooden carts and cloths in the market, and agreed with the man.

"Alright! Let's go, but help me grab Raze first!" the hunter shouted, running out into the open and over to the dead clone. Cypher didn't move at first, as if he couldn't understand what Sova was trying to do. Sova reached the clone, and lifted up her arms, doing his best to avoid the blood. He looked over at his friend, who was just staring at him for some reason. "Cypher! I need your help here."

The man blinked a few times before nodding so suddenly. He rushed over to Sova, and lifted up Raze's other arm over his own shoulder. They both moved quickly, out of the marketplace and into a smaller but more open area with a statue in the middle of the clearing.

Happy with where they were, they set the Raze down onto the ground. 

Before continuing, Sova rubbed his face with one hand and just breathed in the fresh air for a bit. Cypher seemed to do the same, walking in a small circle and appreciating the sunlight.

"Cypher," Sova breathed, blinking a few times then looking over at his friend. "I was getting worried about you. Did you forget to contact me?" he asked through a small chuckle.

The masked man didn't say anything for a moment, as if he was deep in thought. He looked over at the Russian man who was kneeling beside the clone of Raze. "I'm sorry, Sova. There was... a problem that I had to take care of. Just a clone."

"Take care of?" Sova repeated, tilting his head and looking at the Raze beneath him. "Like how you _took care_ of Raze here?"

Cypher chuckled softly and nodded. "Yes. But it wasn't as easy as this one," he said, pointing at the body. "The clone I faced got caught in my wire, but their skill with a gun was not bad at all. They were still able to aim for me, despite being dazed. I had to make sure they didn't escape."

Sova squinted his eyes at that and looked back towards him. "Didn't you say the wire got destroyed?"

The information broker turned his head to look at Sova, then looked away after that split second of eye contact. He pulled out a tripwire from his pocket and twirled it between his knuckles. "I had multiple set up, of course." 

Before the hunter could say any more, Cypher cut him off with a question of his own. 

"Why take Raze with you? Did I... miss something in one of the meetings?"

"I had to check and see if she had any information on her. Don't want anything important burning up, now do we?" Sova responded, focusing his attention back on the clone. He reached over and started to slowly (and respectfully) go through her pockets and bags that hung on her belt. Nothing too unusual seemed to stick out, but he did manage to grab this Raze's ID card that was tucked in one of her pockets.

While he was doing this, his gaze floated over the face of the clone. He couldn't help but see only Raze's face... not a cold-blooded copy of her. 

Cypher heard the man sigh deeply, then watched as he stood up.

"Something the matter?" Cypher asks, straightening his posture and shifting his gaze between the body and the hunter.

Sova didn't say anything for a moment, and stared at the ID card in his hand.

_VALORANT - Agent 12 - Raze_

The lamination shimmered as the sunlight hit it, causing a glare to reflect off of it. Sova rubbed the plastic with his thumb, staring deeply into the photo of Raze.

"Sova?"

The hunter blinked and quickly tucked the ID into his pocket. "Nothing is wrong. It's just..." he trailed off for a bit, looking over at the large smoke cloud that was starting to form over the market. "It's getting difficult."

Cypher tilted his head to one side and walked over to Sova.

"What's difficult?"

"Ignoring the fact that these clones are not just... clones. They were- _are-_ actual living people who have a job to do... just like us." Sova kneeled back down over Raze and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's getting harder to see the differences between us... and them."

Cypher didn't say anything, but he did look slightly surprised at what Sova had stated.

Sova shook his head, and released his grip from Raze's shoulder.

"But then I remember... how many innocents they've killed. What measures they have taken to get to this point-"

Sova's fists clenched tightly. There wasn't a change of emotion on his face, but Cypher could clearly see that he was troubled. The broker waited a moment before speaking.

"I get that you have a lot on your mind, Sova, but we should head back to base. Wouldn't want to keep Skye waiting."

Something pricked the back of Sova's mind, but he couldn't tell what it was.

Every time Cypher spoke, it just felt... strange. 

Every word seemed rehearsed or practiced, without that usual Moroccan charm Cypher was typically known for.

Perhaps he was overthinking this, but Sova's instincts were almost never incorrect.

"That's a good idea," Sova nodded, giving a smile towards Cypher. "But before we do that... can you see what's different about our Raze and this one?" he asked, pointing back down to the body. Cypher's eyes dimmed as he looked down at the body.

"Mmm..." Cypher looked over the body a few times, then shook his head. "I'm going to be completely honest with you, Sova. I don't really see the difference..."

"Really?" Sova asked, but not in any negative tone. He tried to sound as genuine as possible, and it worked. "If you look here," he pointed at her cap, "there's no pattern. It is just orange."

"Mmm..." Cypher mumbled, fixing his own coat collar. "Ah... you're right. It is different." The Moroccan took a few steps away from Sova and over to the statue near the center. "You know me, I'm better at seeing the flaws in tech, not living things."

"Right, of course," said Sova, who was now certain that something was off.

The fact that Cypher was once a professional information broker and an _assassin,_ meant that he was definitely great at seeing the flaws in people. He had to use even the tiniest of info to get close to his targets, which is no easy task.

And if Sova recalled anything about Cypher, it was the fact that he never forgets anything. Once he's told something, it's stuck in that brain of his forever.

 _It's a blessing, and a curse,_ Cypher once stated.

"Let's head back," the man in question said again, looking at Sova. The hunter noticed Cypher was doing his little habit of flipping a tripwire between his fingers, as well as tapping his foot repeatedly on the sand.

"Da. Let's go."

Sova gave the Raze one last look before walking off with Cypher behind him. The hunter didn't say anything, but noticed how Cypher wanted Sova to be the one to lead. It was as if the broker didn't know the way back.

Perhaps Sova could use this to his advantage.

Sova knew where their base was, all they had to do was stay along this path and take a couple right turns... but instead Sova took multiple left turns and made sure to stay as far away from the path as possible.

Cypher didn't seem to say anything unusual, but that lack of concern was... well, concerning.

"Up here," Sova said, pointing at a building that had a few ladders reaching up to the top of it. Sova didn't really have a plan for what was about to transpire, but there wasn't enough time to come up with one as they climbed up the ladders.

The two of them reached the top of the building, about three floors up from the ground below. The hunter walked forward near the middle of the roof while Cypher looked around questionably. "Sova... this isn't the base."

"Ah... the way back is a little confusing, of course," Sova responded with a half-hearted smile. " _You_ should have lead the way back, ahah."

"Sova... what's going on?" Cypher asked, crossing his arms.

The hunter looked down at the roof for a moment, thinking about what to say. He took a deep breath, and then slowly turns around to look at Cypher in the eyes.

The stare that they give each other could tell a million words, but Sova fills in the silence.

"You killed her."

Cypher blinks and cocks his head to the side, looking a little confused. "You mean the clone? Of course I did, she-"

"Raze. Your own _teammate._ "

Their eyes lock again, but this time... a whole different man is standing in the place of Cypher. He begins to chuckle, while Sova's gaze pierces into him.

"How could you do that?" Sova continues, "Killing your own friend to get closer to us! To me!"

Cypher scoffs, and suddenly his entire demeanor changes. The man lifts his chin and puffs out his chest a bit, as if he was trying to be the bigger man. "That Raze was nothing more than a nuisance," he replied, cracking his knuckles. "All she did was get in my way. I'm glad that I was the one to finally rid her of this existence."

Sova knew that the real Cypher loved his dark humor, but he could tell that this Cypher was _not joking._ Each word he spat sounded hateful, lacking that Cypher-esque charm.

These clones were not merely copies, they were still living, breathing people that existed in a similar universe to his own... meaning that this Cypher must have some similarities to the real one... his best friend.

But, Cypher was sick of the chat and pulled out his Ghost, to which Sova lifted up his own Sheriff. They both had a gun pointed to their heads, and yet neither of them were intimidated.

"How could you say that about Raze? She was your _friend_ , Cypher."

"I'm not who you think I am, hunter. I am not _weak_ like that coward of a man who calls himself a killer."

Sova recoils at that word. 

_Killer._

Cypher calls himself this in one of two situations: when he's doing well on a mission and the mood is generally high, or when he's reminiscing about the past.

Sova was one of the only few people that Cypher liked to talk to, but most of the time it wasn't about happy memories. Cypher has had a rough life, and even Sova didn't know the half of it.

But despite all the secrets, Sova knew of one word that absolutely tore his friend apart. One name that could leave him crippled inside.

If this Cypher was even remotely similar to the real one, just by a sliver, that harder exterior would mean nothing. However, Sova didn't want to say it, even if this man didn't belong here in this universe. No man should have to relive through the same pain twice.

The hunter stared down the edge of his gun, right into those masked eyes of the Sentinel. They were filled with confidence and pride. "So, before I end you, would you like to tell me where exactly your base is?" Cypher asked, still pointing that gun at Sova.

Sova takes a deep breath before responding.

"Would Nora want this?"

There, something clicked in Cypher's head... Sova could tell from the way his entire body softened.

"Wh... wh..." Cypher's arm slowly faltered, as if he lost the strength to aim it at Sova's head. "How..."

"Sorry, Cypher-" Sova whispered, suddenly lowering his arms and charging at Cypher within a few seconds. The clone's eyes widened and he shot his gun, the bullet grazing Sova's leg but not stopping the Russian from tackling him right to the ground. Sova slammed his body weight on top of Cypher's form, kicking the gun away, but the man wasn't completely broken just yet, and grabbed Sova by the throat to choke him.

Sova grabbed Cypher's arm and twisted it away, but allowed his side to be open, getting kneed in the ribs by the Moroccan. The hunter grunted and the two agents continued to grab onto each other. Sova tried to reach for his knife, but Cypher had grabbed it off of Sova's leg holster and attempted to swing it a few times. Only a few swings tore through Sova's clothing, and thankfully none reached his skin. The knife was then slapped away by the hunter, who also cut a small part of his palm in the process.

Cypher was still trying to get Sova off of his body and reached up to punch him, but Sova used this to his advantage and took the hit, allowing his arms to get under Cypher's arms. Sova just lifted Cypher up onto his shoulders (the hat falling off in the process), but not without getting punched a few more times.

Hobbling over to the edge of the roof, Sova did his best to make sure Cypher didn't escape from his grasp. "STOP- SOVA YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THIS-" Cypher choked, unable to get Sova to drop him. "Y-YOU SAID IT YOURSELF! I HAD A JOB TO DO! I'M JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS-"

"You KILLED your own teammate Cypher!" Sova scolded (like an upset parent) back at the man, who was still pulling Sova's hair and trying to claw into his face. "WAS _THAT_ AN ORDER?"

"FUCK YOU-" Cypher yelled back, noticing how close the two of them were near the edge. "Don't act like you're the morally correct one here," Cypher whined, almost sounding like he was crying. "Mentioning my dead wife? I HATE YOU! I HATE ALL OF YOU!" Cypher shouted, holding back his tears to prevent a breakdown.

Suddenly, the clawing stopped, and all Sova could hear was the muffled crying of a man who couldn't take any more.

Perhaps he shouldn't throw him off-

Suddenly, Cypher managed to wrap his arms around Sova's neck and he fell backwards onto Cypher. "I hope you burn in hell, hunter," Cypher sneered, tears still falling down his face behind that mask. Sova started gasping for air, ultimately regretting his hesitation. 

_Don't give them mercy, hunter._

Sova lifted his elbow and jammed it on top of Cypher's face, allowing Cypher's grasp to be released from his neck. Groaning in pain, Cypher realized his body was being lifted up again, but this time, Sova didn't wait for Cypher to say anything back.

_No second chances._

The hunter tossed the information broker off of the edge of the building, and watched the clone's eyes go dim as his body slammed onto a few stacks of bricks below. 

Sova stared at it for a few minutes, making sure that all the blood pooling up around the clone really meant that he was dead.

When Sova was satisfied, he closed his eyes and leveled his breathing while doing his best to stay on his feet. Looking back at the hat that had fallen from Cypher's head, Sova knew that this thing was dangerous. A whole lot of intel was on this device, but he knew that if he took it back with him, it would probably implant a virus or destroy half of Valorant's data (honestly, no one really knew what Cypher's hat actually did). He lifted his leg, and stomped on it a few times, the hat making crunching noises and releasing a few loose sparks.

Sova's face scrunched up from the pain that tore into his leg, probably from that gunshot that grazed it earlier.

Now would probably be a good time to report back into Skye, but as he clicked on the comms, there was just a static noise. "Hmm... probably broke in the little fight I had."

Sova rubbed his face, forgetting that one of his palms was still bleeding, and now had huge red smears on his cheeks. But he was too tired to really give a shit, so he picked up his Sheriff (sliding it back into his holster), decided to climb back down the ladder (carefully), and tried to head back to base before Skye sends her tiger after him.

\---

"What did I tell 'em? I said, 'keep us updated.' Is that hard?" Skye whined to herself, worried about the two men that had left a few hours ago. "Are they usually like this?"

Reyna stopped pacing around the area (she hated waiting around for some action to happen) and looked at Skye. "No. Those two are usually the ones bombarding the comms with... intel. Perhaps it is strange that they haven't checked in."

"So they're basically fucked," said Jett nonchalantly, playing with one of her knives.

"WHAT-" Skye almost choked on her own breath, "Jett, mate, don't say things like that-"

"Oh, right, sorry Skye." Jett waved her own hand in front of her face, as if she was "resetting" herself. "Ahem, so they're basically in trouble."

"No, that's not what I-" Skye sighed and buried her head into her hands while Reyna lightly chuckled in the background.

The three women were still at site, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the two intel gatherers to return. Neither of them had used their comms, which was unsettling for Skye. Jett and Reyna didn't seem to be too worried though, so Skye was just trying to remain hopeful.

"Shhh," Reyna ordered suddenly, holding up one finger to the two agents with her. Skye and Jett were already quiet, but were now focused on the sound of footsteps coming from the western entrance.

The footsteps got closer, and immediately the three agents pulled out their guns, knives, and... bird trinkets.

"Hold on a moment," a voice shouted, followed by the sight of a hand being raised. "I'm back... I'm back..."

The trio saw a figure come out from behind the corner, seeing Sova's bloody and bruised face. The man grinned weakly, and hobbled over to the other agents.

Skye immediately rushed over to the man and pulled out her healing trinket.

"Oh, mate, are you alright?" she started scanning Sova's body, and looked very concerned when she saw how much blood was on his face.

Sova noticed this and lightly chuckled, raising his palm to show Skye that it was just from his hand. Nothing serious.

Reyna watched as Skye guided Sova back to a smaller crate that he could sit on while she performed her healing. Jett also followed behind him, asking him questions about what happened.

Sova explained everything to the other agents while his Initiator buddy healed his leg.

"Oh! So that's why your face looks like an absolute trainwreck," Jett snickered, getting a light punch on the arm by Skye in return. "Ow," Jett mumbled, rubbing her arm.

"At least you put that copy of Cypher down," Reyna said, clicking her fingernails together. "Imagine if you failed. We would have lost two people here today."

Sova's eyebrows furrowed and he looked up at her. "We didn't lose Cypher. Our Cypher. He's still around here... somewhere."

"Yet you didn't care to ask before throwing that thing off the roof."

Sova sighed, sick of always being brought down by Reyna. "Sorry," he managed to say, without raising his voice. He looked away from the woman, and wiped his face with a damp rag that Skye had handed to him.

"Nah, you're doing fine, Sova," Jett added, trying to lighten the mood. "We just have to spread out... and look around. I mean, there has to be some sort of way for us to find their base. This place isn't _that_ big, I mean- yeah- the alleyways are all twisty but that won't stop me from kicking clone ass."

Skye finished up the repair of Sova's leg, wrapped up the wound on his hand with some cleaner bandages, and started to work on his bruised face. She did her best to avoid looking directly into the bright light that shined from his right eye.

"Do we have any idea where they could be stationed?" Skye asked the team, not making eye contact with Jett or Reyna but turning her head to the side. "Sova? See anything?"

"No. But both clones were patrolling around the marketplace, so perhaps their base is not too far from there. Also, Cypher's wire was tripped to the east of the market. We could look there," Sova suggested, trying to not move his face around too much so Skye could work.

Jett crossed her arms. "Okay, so we just start looking to the... east?"

"South," Reyna interjected, "East of the market is south of this area."

"Alright," Jett nodded, already light on her feet, getting ready for some action. "Time to show those clones what we are made of-!"

_FSHHHHHHHHH!_

The team all gave each other the same look of "what the hell was that noise," and directed their gaze up to the sky.

They all saw it: a brightly colored streak of red light had just been released up into the air, making a soft whirring sound as it flew by.

"That's-" Jett squinted her eyes.

"-a flare," Sova finished, his eyes widening. "Coming from..." he pointed his arm over to the southwest.

"That's totally not suspicious," Jett added, pacing around. "Okay, tell me that does not spell trap."

"It means action, Jett," Reyna grins, her heart glowing with excitement.

Skye looked back over at Sova, and gave his shoulder a small tap of approval before standing up to go join the other women staring at the now falling flare. Sova stood up as well, his body feeling a hell of a lot better, and brushed off his pants.

The naturalist put a hand on her hip and glanced at her teammates. "That's also the only sign we've had. I think we definitely need to go and see what that could mean."

After a quick look around at everybody's expressions, they all agreed on heading out to find the source of that flare.

\---

Cypher didn't feel well.

His body ached all over, and when attempting to open his eyes, the world around him was just a blur. He tried lifting up his arm to block the sunlight from shining into his eyes, but they were just too heavy for him to lift. His right arm was also stuck on something, making his attempt at moving it nearly impossible.

Thinking about what had happened earlier clouded his mind, forcing Cypher to stop before he gave himself an even worse headache.

_No, Aamir... be stronger than this-_

Cypher managed to fully gather this thoughts together, groaning from the pain that lingered and spread through his head.

_Think..._

_We were... on a mission..._

_Scouting with... Sova..._

_Wire... activated..._

_Ambushed..? Yes, yes. I was ambushed._

Cypher breathed out deeply. His chest didn't seem to hurt as much as his head, which was a relief. 

_There were... people. Clones. Multiple clones._

_One came from behind... stabbed me with some syringe._

_Drugged me then dragged me here._

_Ouch._

The wounded man started to hear voices, and thought that they were just effects of the drugs at first. However a figure suddenly loomed over him, only appearing as a hazy shadow in Cypher's eyes.

The shadow was outlined in a deep blue, and had a bright, blue light shining from the face of this figure. It tilted his head at the man slumped against the ground, and continued to stare.

This looked an awful lot like someone Cypher knew...

"S-Sova?" Cypher managed to say through pained mumbles. The Moroccan did his best to lift up his free hand toward him, glad that he could see a friendly face.

"I thought we were supposed to kill him," a voice stated.

This voice came from behind Sova, British-accented and staggeringly aggressive. 

Sova looked down at the man that lay before him, and scoffed. "Me too," the Russian huffed, slapping away Cypher's attempt at reaching out, making his entire arm fall back down to the ground. Cypher's breath trembled when he realized what was going on.

"-but according to the boss, he needs this man alive. Said something about providing us with some useful information."

"Bullshit. He's not going to say fuck all."

Sova shrugged and stepped away from Cypher's body, back over to the other man who he was speaking with. "Not my problem."

Cypher's vision was now starting to clear up just a bit, and he noticed that the copy of Sova was standing with a copy of Phoenix. 

Cypher also noticed how light his head felt, as if there was nothing weighing it down-

_Oh no no no no no-_

As if Cypher's arm was just magically fixed, he swung it up at full speed, covering his face with his forearm. He could feel his own heart beating against the walls of his chest, causing his breathing to quicken. The man pulls his legs in close, and tries to grab them with his other hand, but forgets that it was handcuffed to a thick flagpole, causing his wrist to push up against the metal in pain for a moment.

They removed his mask. The only material possession that he truly couldn't live without.

Now he was vulnerable to the people around him. They saw his face. They know what he looks like. _Nothing good can come from this._

Sova glanced at the poor man squirming on the floor and smirked. He didn't say anything, and returned to the original conversation at hand. His partner Phoenix was giving him a hard time, complaining about a bunch of nonsense that Sova didn't care about.

"Why the hell are we waitin' here?" Phoenix grumbled, finger holding the trigger of his Bulldog, doing his best not to shoot the whimpering man behind him.

The hunter stands with his arms crossed, looking out at the other agents scurrying around the base. "We're supposed to be waiting for Raze and Cypher to return-"

Cypher's eyes lit up for a split second after hearing his name being mentioned in that familiar Russian accent, but the reminder hit him like a knife through the skull: _they aren't your allies._

"-but they've been gone for a while." Sova sighed, closing his eyes and lifting up his head to feel the slight presence of a breeze drifting pass. "Не знаю, как ты, но я устал ждать." he said, getting a strange look from Phoenix.

"Sova y'know I can't understand what you're saying-"

"I don't care."

Phoenix rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Suddenly, a huge streak of light shot up near the duo of agents over by the tent, followed by a whirring noise. Both Sova and Phoenix looked over at them, seeing Viper and Jett yelling at each other for some reason.

"Are you stupid?" Viper shouted, pointing a finger at Jett. The wind girl lowered her arm with the flare gun in hand, and glared back at the toxic woman.

"This is the only way that he'll see us!" Jett exclaimed, angrily tossing the gun to the ground and pointing up at the sky. "Our tech isn't exactly _working_ right now, right? So how the hell is the old man supposed to find us?"

"There are other ways, Jett! Not letting the entire world know that our base is stationed here!"

"What is going on?" Sova said, forcing himself in between the two ladies. "Jett, why did you use that flare?"

Jett frowned and looked at the hunter. "I got a call from the old man, he said that he can't track where our base is." She looked back into Viper's striking glare, and returned it with her own. "So, like I said, that flare will tell him where we are."

"But that also tells _them_ where _WE_ are as well!" Viper fumed, shaking her head.

"No shit! Don't act like I'm not capable of thinking ahead-" Jett grumbled, "-because he's already close by, all we have to do it pack up all this shit and then leave. NO BIG DEAL."

Viper sighed loudly and turned around, walking away from the younger woman. "Then let's hurry up," she snapped, "before we get jumped by the copies."

Cypher didn't have the gut to remove his arm from his face as the group of clones started to run around the base and pack up their things. He did notice the streak of light that was shot up into the sky, so hopefully his friends would check it out and get him the hell out of there.

But perhaps that wouldn't be a good idea either, considering that this group of clones was strangely large. The typical team consisted of five people, but this team had at least seven, maybe eight people in it at the moment. 

His friends would be largely outnumbered, which worried him greatly, but his main focus was to do everything he could to keep his face covered.

_Aamir... stop acting like this... get up-_

After a while, the clones were almost done getting their things together and gathered up near the center of the base. Cypher was still being watched by Sova, though, who was holding a Marshal and leaning against a concrete wall.

"Why cover your face?" Sova asked in a way that made Cypher almost forget that he wasn't the real hunter. It was jarring, how similar the two men were.

Cypher didn't respond to the question, making Sova squint his eyes at the man.

"Perhaps there is... something you are afraid of?"

Again, the broker said nothing and continued to sit there against the flagpole. He felt a little bit better than before, but still a little clouded. Cypher's brain wanted to talk to this man, the one who looked like his best friend, but he knew in his heart that talking to him would be a mistake.

"Come on, Cypher, talk to me," Sova insisted, completely sounding like the usual nice Russian man that was always able to lift the mood of his team. Cypher wondered if this Sova used this side of him to manipulate others instead of it being his natural personality. What a horrible thing to do-

_CLINK!_

Sova's eyes darted over to the sound of something sitting the metal flagpole that Cypher was attached to.

The familiar sight of a recon bolt made Sova's instinct kick in and shoot it immediately, with the sound of the bullet ricocheting off of the pole itself. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, in Cypher's case) the bolt was able to get off a single wave of scanning the area, allowing for the real Sova to figure out how many hostiles were in the area.

The voice of Jett filled the area, "Watch out!" 

Sounds of explosions and gunshots started to increase so suddenly, followed by multiple voices yelling at each other. The base had turned into a battlefield in a matter of seconds.

Funnily enough, the sound of Reyna's laughter would overlap the gunshots at times, followed by birds screeching and various colors of blinding lights.

Cypher closed his eyes, not wanting to look at one of these lights head-on. He already had a headache, the flashes would just make it worse.

The man continues to sit there, one arm over his face, waiting for something to happen. He didn't know how long it had been since the battle started, but suddenly he heard loud footsteps running up to him.

"Cypher, Cypher-"

It was Sova's voice, but he didn't know which one.

The figure reached out and touched him on the shoulder, but Cypher flinched and pushed him away quickly before covering his face once again.

"N-No-" he whispered, not wanting to admit that he was really scared.

Sova noticed that he saw something he shouldn't have seen.

_Cypher's eyes-_

The hunter quickly thought of something to help, and removed his own cape with haste. He then lightly set it on Cypher's head, knowing how much Cypher hated being seen without his mask. The Moroccan didn't resist and continued to hold up the cape with his own hand.

"It's really me," Sova whispered, still on the alert for any clones that might take this opportunity to strike the two of them. "I have the key to those cuffs, I'm going to unlock them."

Cypher nodded from underneath the cape and heard the hunter move up and around him, fumbling with the cuffs before finally hearing a "click" that released the lock. Sova helped remove Cypher's wrist gently and placed it onto his lap.

Sova looped back around the man and kneeled down. "Cypher, can you stand?" he asked, grabbing ahold of Cypher's free hand.

The broker attempted to lift himself up (with the help of Sova) but his knees were shaky and sore. Standing was really difficult, especially when all he could currently see was darkness. His balance was all off, and Sova had to do most of the lifting.

As Sova helped Cypher walk around the main fight (away from all the bullets and blinding lights), Jett dashed in front of him so suddenly, making Sova pull out his gun and aim it at the lady. 

"Whoa! Just me-" Jett breathed, sounding like she was almost out of breath. She saw the light return to Sova's eyes as he realized she wasn't a clone, and he lowered his gun while readjusting his grip of Cypher's body. Jett saw Cypher half-slumped over, with Sova's cape draped over his top half. "Is he okay?" Jett asked, noticing a large shadow loom over the group in the sky for a moment. She looked up, and saw a giant ship zoom past them and over to the other side of the base, where all the clones were trying to hold out in. Sova noticed this too, but didn't give it too much thought. 

His focus was getting Cypher out of this mess.

"He's alive, thankfully."

Jett squinted at the cape over his head for a moment, then realized what had probably happened. "Alright... well get him out of here, I'll head back and help the others," she insisted, lifting herself up into the air and dashing away.

Sova continued to move at a pace that Cypher would be able to move with, and soon they found some cover behind a clay-brick wall that went up to Sova's waist level. The two of them ducked down behind it, and the hunter helped Cypher down onto the ground.

Cypher leaned his back up against the wall, giving Sova a moment to take a look back at the fight. His friends were still alive, all fighting and trying to even the numbers between the two parties.

Sova didn't want to leave Cypher here, but he had to go help the others.

"Cypher, listen to me-" Sova whispered, putting a hand on Cypher's arm. "I'm going to go help Reyna and others. Take this-" he said, reaching over and handing his own Sheriff to the man. Cypher's left hand gripped the barrel of the gun, and he slid it under his coat. "Use that if you must, but try to stay hidden."

"U-understood," Cypher sputtered, trying to sound a little bit more confident and hide the shakiness from his voice.

Giving Cypher one last pat on the arm, Sova lifted himself up and scurried over to the battlefield. He unholstered his Operator and ducked behind some cover, meeting up with the naturalist who was currently doing her strange focusing on the tiger that she had sent into the fight.

Sova peeked up and over the cover for a moment, looked through his scope, and shot once at the enemy Omen who managed to dodge the bullet by teleporting at the right moment.

Ducking back down, Sova heard the sharp intake of breath from the woman next to him.

"Ah-!" Skye exclaimed, shaking her head and blinking a couple times. She saw the hunter ducking down next to her, looking a little concerned. "Sova," she said, turning her head towards him, "they are tryin' to escape on that ship!"

"Escape? Why would they retreat? They have us outnumbered-" Sova questioned, suddenly interrupted by the sound of a huge explosion.

The sound of the blast rang through the air, making everyone on both sides cover their ears and hide behind cover. A lot of random debris flew by, followed by a strong breeze and plenty of dust.

The Initiators both covered their heads with their arms, but Sova saw the figure of their vampire friend shoot through the sky at an incredible speed. Her shadowy body slammed into a building near the place where Cypher was hiding out in. Her Empress form slowly fizzled out, and she fell to the ground instantly. Judging by the lack of a body getting up, the hunter assumed Reyna was down for the count.

_Oh shit-_

"Skye! Reyna's down-" Sova mentioned through the clenching of his teeth, picking up his gun once more. "We need to go to her!"

"I get that, Sova, but we can't let these parasites go!"

"We have to, Skye!" Sova said, taking ahold of Skye's wrist and staring into her eyes. "Cypher and Reyna are down, and Jett is already tired from this battle. They outnumber us by almost six- maybe even seven! There's nothing the three of us can do alone against so many enemies, Skye." 

She looked at the hunter in the eyes, and even though only one of them was real, both oozed emotion and worry for his friends. 

Skye cursed through her teeth and nodded at him. She reached up and touched her earpiece, giving Jett the order to fall back.

"What?" Jett questioned, her breath definitely winded from all that gliding around.

"Do it, Jett!" Skye ordered, releasing her grip of the earpiece and quickly giving life to a Hawko trinket. Sova knew what that action meant, and gave Skye a nod of acknowledgement. She released her friend into the sky, letting it fly up and behind their cover.

"Hawk!" the voice of a clone shouted, followed by the loud screeching and bright light exploding out from Hawko.

After the flash, Skye and Sova rushed out of cover, back to the little wall where Cypher was still residing. It seemed as though Sova was right about Reyna landing near here, as they saw her body still lying on the sand and dirt. Little bits of purple radiant light were still emanating off of her body, meaning that she was still alive (hopefully). 

Immediately, Sova went over to Cypher, and asked him if he was still alright.

Cypher's head moved from under the cape, and Skye gave him a confused glare. 

"Did something happen...?" Skye asked Sova quietly over his shoulder.

"You know how he always has his mask on..."

"Ohhh, alrighty, say no more."

"Mhm. Go check up on Reyna."

Skye hurried over to the fallen agent and started to help her up. Jett arrived shortly after, landing on the dirt and falling down to her knees.

"Oh man. These guys are _not_ fooling around," Jett huffed. "But if you look back now, you can see the pansy bitches fleeing away in their stupid ship-"

Sova did take a moment to look at the ship that had landed over on the other side of this base. All the remaining clones were making their way onto it, and soon the ship lifted up, made a huge 180 degree turn, and zoomed away.

"THAT'S CHEAP!" Jett yelled at the ship, chucking a few knives at it in the distance (obviously not even close to hitting it).

"Just relax, Jett," Sova suggested, sitting down next to Cypher and leaning his head back against the wall. The wind girl sighed, and finally took a seat on the top of the wall. Skye pulled Reyna over, and the Mexican was spouting curses through her teeth. Sova knew that she would be upset about letting the enemies leave, but he also knew that she was currently too weak to do anything about it.

The team collectively ignored her rage while Skye started to heal her wounds. They all took a short break, checking over their weapons and injuries. Skye had gone over to Cypher to see if she could help him at all, but he just pushed her away for now. Sova insisted that he wasn't doing it out of spite, and she understood. Cypher wasn't a bad person, just a little sheltered.

Soon the team decided to head back to their own site, so that their ship could arrive. Sova helped Cypher walk while Skye had Reyna, but to their surprise, the base felt a little more empty than when they had left.

Reyna scowled and was about to say a few words, but Skye just patted her shoulder a couple times in an attempt to calm her down. She fumed for a bit more, but remained silent.

"The crates..." Jett groaned, rubbing her face with both hands.

The radianite crates were all gone, leaving a giant empty space in the middle of the base. 

"One of us should have stayed back-" said Jett, even more annoyed about this whole mission. 

"That would not have been a good idea," Sova stated, giving Jett a glare that represented a teacher disappointed in their student. "If they weren't afraid of protecting their base with a team that consisted of more than five people, who knows how many were sent to the actual site."

"At least they didn't plant a spike..." the naturalist sighed, still patting Reyna's shoulder.

"Let's just wait for the captain to get us, then we can reflect back at HQ."

\---

Cypher was currently in the medbay, resting his body and flushing out any leftover drugs in his system. Sage had given him the look-over after a long while of struggling to get Cypher to show his face, knowing full well that he hated getting any sort of checkups. Cypher insisted that his face was fine, and that he didn't need someone to look over it.

Sage argued that having Sova's cape over his face during the checkup was not ideal at all, so Cypher had asked her to grab the prototype mask he had leftover in his bedroom. The healer sent Killjoy to grab it, (knowing that she knew around his room the most) and after a very long waiting period, the techie returned with annoyance and exhaustion in her eyes, mentioning about Cypher's room being a complete mess and how he really should organize it a bit better.

Ignoring Killjoy's complaints, Cypher snatched the mask from her hands and adjusted it to fit his face from underneath the cape.

He finally felt closure after being exposed for so long.

Now, Cypher was laying in bed, waiting for Sage to come back from her little trip to the kitchen. The radiant vampire was in the medbay earlier, but she had quickly left before Sage could even say a single word to her (and judging by Sage's lack of chasing after her, this probably meant that she was used to Reyna running off). 

After a few minutes, Cypher heard the door to the medbay slide open, and saw Sova walk in. He gave Cypher a small wave, and started walking over to him. 

"Sova," Cypher greeted, voice still a little hoarse and shaky, but not like before. Sova returned the greeting with a small nod, and pulled up a chair to his side, sitting down next to Cypher's bed.

"I came to see how you were doing," Sova smiled, noticing the new mask on Cypher's face. "New getup?" he asked, gesturing to it.

Cypher let out a pained chuckle and nodded. "Well, it's better than your sweaty cape," he said, pointing his arm over to the cape that still sat on Sage's desk chair. 

Sova scoffed politely and held up his hands.

Cypher took a breath in, and sighed deeply. "But really, thank you Sova. I shouldn't have left on my own."

"It's not your fault. I know you are capable of handling yourself. This time was just... unlucky."

"Sure, sure, just don't let my ego get too big or else I might burst into flames and charge head first into enemy lines."

Sova did his best to hold back a laugh. He was glad that Cypher was fine now, after seeing him so... _vulnerable._

"Cypher..." Sova said, surprising Cypher with the sudden mood shift. "I'm... sorry."

Cypher squinted his eyes at the hunter, and watched the man's posture sink a little.

" _Wait_ , wait.You're sorry?For what?" Cypher questioned, leaning forward a little to try and match Sova.

Sova's eyes wandered off away from Cypher. "Just- it's-"

_Using the name of your wife to cripple your clone. Taking advantage of a secret you have told me in order to win something that I probably could have solved a different way._

"Wait, don't tell me-" Cypher smirked. "You saw my face, didn't you?"

Sova didn't say anything and continued to look away.

A few seconds of silence passed, until suddenly Sova gave Cypher a nod. He lifted up his head and looked at Cypher in those bright blue eyes of his.

"I might have saw your eyes. Just a glimpse, though."

Cypher grinned (if only Sova could see it though his mask), and held up a finger gun to the hunter's head. "So you did see my eyes. Guess I'll have to kill you now," the Moroccan said in a very serious tone, "Say your last words, hunter."

Sova played along and held up his hands in "fear," but he couldn't help but let a small smile slip out.

"What are you two doing?" a voice from behind them asked.

The two of them turned their heads and saw Sage walk in with a cup of tea in her hands. The healer walked over to Cypher and handed him the tea, to which he grabbed it carefully with both hands. 

"Thank you, Sage." He set it to the side and would drink it later when no one was looking.

Sage gave him a nod, and turned her glare over to Sova.

"Sova, the captain wanted to speak with you."

Sova's face scrunched up a little. "Ah, alright. I'll head over there now."

Sage crossed her arms and watched the hunter stand up. "I would be... careful. Reyna is also waiting for you there."

Sova stopped in his tracks for a moment and ran his hand through his hair. "Mmm... alright."

"Don't forget your cape," Cypher chimed in, looking at Sage. Her eyes widened, and she went over to her desk to grab his cape. It was neatly folded, and Sage picked it up carefully.

"Here you go," she said, handing it over to Sova. He took it from Sage's arms with a smile, and she quickly looked away before she started to blush. The hunter unfolded it and threw on the cape around his shoulders, making sure it was comfortably placed. Soon, the hunter was back to his usual attire, making Cypher realize just how different he looked without that fur around his neck.

Cypher also noticed how Sage couldn't take her eyes off of the man as he dressed himself.

"I'll be on my way now," Sova muttered, obviously worried about what was about to go down in the meeting room. "Take care, Cypher. You too, Sage."

The two Sentinels gave him a small wave in return and watched as he left the medbay in a hurry.

"So... is there something going on between-"

"Be quiet, Cypher."

Cypher couldn't help but let out a laugh at the stone-faced healer that was uncontrollably blushing over his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MAN THIS WAS LONG  
> Sorry I didn't break up this into two parts, I just have this pet-peeve of breaking chapters apart for some reason-
> 
> Anyway, here are some things to address about this chapter:
> 
> >Yeah I like to think that Sova and Cypher are best friends, it just feels like they would be, y'know? AND IF THEY AREN'T CANONICALLY, THEN I WILL IGNORE THAT AND KEEP THIS AS MY PERSONAL HC LMAO (UNLESS CYPHER DID SOMETHING TERRIBLY BAD TO SOVA, THEN I MEAN- I DUNNO WHAT TO DO AT THAT POINT-)
> 
> >So in the first half of the chapter Sova had a rifle (the one he used when he fought Raze), and later in the chapter he has an Operator. I didn't mention this, but I was thinking that he had changed weapons back when he had returned to base after throwing Cypher off of the building. (Just a small thing that I didn't actually mention in the story.)
> 
> >There are so many theories about Cypher's face! My personal one is that the mask it just a mask- it can be removed and can be reused. I'd like to think his eyes are not natural (considering how they are apart of the mask he wears) meaning that they are both some form of radianite tech, BUT I'd also like to think that the glow-y eyes are just apart of the mask too, and he just has normal human eyes. I don't know which one I'm going for at the moment XD (OR MAYBE HE JUST DOESN'T HAVE A FACE AT ALL AND THAT MASK IS LITERALLY HIS FACE)
> 
> Other things that I would like to say:  
> >THAT NEW CINEMATIC THOUGH- OMG IT WAS AMAZING, I WATCHED IT SO MANY TIMES AKJDHASJKJSADHK  
> >I played Yoru once and oh my- I'm not a duelist player at all... but if I had to it would definitely be Yoru. He's so much fun to play around with.  
> >RIP Cypher in that cinematic PFFFFFFFFFFFFF omg even though it was an enemy Cypher- I felt bad for him XD  
> >Yoru won't really "be" in the next few chapters. I don't have a good enough feel for his character yet, so perhaps he'll arrive in his own chapter (much later).
> 
> And lastly... thank you for all the support on this fic! Updates will still be slow, unfortunately, due to a busy schedule. But thank you all for waiting on this one 🙏


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